Index closes on 2,000 pts
The Athens Stock Exchange general index fell 64.57 points, or 3.04 percent, last week to close at a new year-low of 2,058.94 points. Three of the week’s five sessions ended with losses. Turnover was just over 469 million euros, an average of about 94 million euros per session. Once again, small-capitalization stocks were hardest hit: The FTSE/ASE Small Cap 80 index fell 3.47 percent, while the FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips dropped 3.05 percent and the FTSE/ASE Mid-Cap -40, 2.30 percent. All sectoral indices but one registered losses. The exceptions, TV and entertainment, rose 4.48 percent after a 10.87 rise, against the trend, the previous week. Telecommunications stocks suffered the greatest losses (7.25 percent), followed by insurance (5.44 percent), foods and beverages (5.09 percent) and textiles (5.04 percent). Among the 371 stocks traded last week, 282 fell, 74 gained and 15 were unchanged. The loss leaders were Xifias Fisheries (25 percent) and publisher Livanis, which lost 24.38 percent in its inaugural session on Friday. Earlier that day, an «open sale» order had caused Livanis’s stock to plunge 79.34 percent, before recovering. On the other hand, VIS’s preferred shares gained 23.27 percent, followed by the National Investment Bank for Industrial Development (21.66 percent). The week’s most heavily traded shares were those of OPAP, with an average turnover of 19.05 million euros per session, OTE telecom, with 16.58 million, and underwear firm Sex Form (10.01 million).
