Encouraging bourse gains
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general index ended last week at 1,836.32 points on Friday, up 60.51 points or 3.41 percent from the previous week’s close. The total value of shares traded during the week reached 477.08 million euros, an average daily volume of 95.42 million. The strongest buying interest was for stocks of large capitalization, leading the FTSE/ASE-20 index 3.94 percent higher. The FTSE/ASE-40 of mid-caps gained 2.73 percent and the FTSE/ASE Small Cap-80 was up 2.20 percent. All sectoral indices except refineries, which declined 1.09 percent, recorded gains. Insurance companies gained most, their index rising a hefty 20.37 percent, followed by the investment index with 10.07 percent and retail commerce with 9.75 percent. Of the 370 stocks traded last week, 263 gained, 16 remained unchanged and 91 dropped in value. Retailing firm Vardas outperformed the gainers with 51.54 percent, followed closely by Agrotiki Life Insurance with 49.47 percent. Emborikos Desmos and Lanacam sustained the largest losses, shedding 20.73 and 18.22 respectively. The most heavily traded stock was OTE Telecom, with an average value of 12.98 million euros per session, followed by Sex Form with 5.39 million, Informatics with 5.01 million and state-controlled soccer pools and lottery operator OPAP with 3.84 million euros. (Please note that, for technical reasons, the column «Greatest Changes Over the Period» below contains the closing prices of Thursday, November 7.)
