Stocks close flat; OTE, TT advance
The Athens bourse ended flat yesterday, as selective blue chip buying helped offset profit-taking in banks after Wednesday’s rally. The Athens bourse’s benchmark general index ended off 0.02 percent at 1,474.05 points. The blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 index eased 0.13 percent to 702.71 points. Banks dipped 2 percent after jumping more than 7 percent on Wednesday. National Bank fell 2.83 percent to 6.86 euros and Eurobank EFG dropped 3.27 percent to 4.14 euros. Hellenic Postbank (TT) bucked the trend, adding 3 percent to 3.09 euros on talk that it may merge with ATEbank. Cement company Titan jumped 6.68 percent to 15.64 euros and OTE ended at 7.30 euros, up 5.64 percent. Turnover reached 151.33 million euros.
