Strong National Bank limits ASE losses to 0.29 pct
Late-session buying in index heavyweight National Bank of Greece helped trim losses on the Athens bourse yesterday while the broader market spent the session in negative territory, tracking European peers. The market is under selling pressure due to weak performances on European bourses, but local equities look to be more in a consolidating mood, said Petros Tegopoulos, Axon Securities analyst. The Athens bourse’s benchmark general index eased 0.29 percent to 2,223.59 points after dipping to an intrasession low of 2,203.93 points. Greece’s largest commercial bank, National, gained 1.02 percent to 23.80 euros after a ratings upgrade to neutral from reduce by Merrill Lynch. Banks eased 0.24 percent and blue chips on the FTSE/ASE-20 index fell 0.34 percent to 1,236.67 points. Telecoms ended off 0.51 percent. Small-caps on the FTSE/ASE-80 index gained 0.49 percent and the mid-caps index shed 0.16 percent. Turnover was 116.31 million euros on 25.6 million shares traded. Advancers beat decliners 184 to 127 with 47 shares unchanged on 358 traded.(Reuters) Some Greek politicians have also deplored what they falsely characterized as US aggression against Serbia. The support of some Greeks for the genocidal killer Slobodan Milosevic was another development that was not looked upon favorably by the Hellenic-American community.
