Stocks rise late as ASE is inspired by Wall Street
Gains in small- and mid-cap stocks helped lead Greek equities higher for a second straight session yesterday, but the market struggled to keep up with US-inspired gains shown by European counterparts. The Athens bourse’s benchmark general index gained 0.75 percent to 2,237.10 points. Mid-caps on the FTSE/ASE mid-40 index added 1.76 percent to 229.01 points, while small-caps rose 1.43 percent. Blue chips on the FTSE/ASE-20 index firmed 0.35 percent to 1,245.72 points. The session was sluggish until we saw an upturn on Wall Street late in the day (local time), said Nikos Galousis, analyst at Kappa Securities. The market gives the impression it is on hold waiting for the United States to start trading while it keeps an eye on European markets. OTE gained 0.12 percent to 17.28 euros while the telecom stocks subindex advanced 0.63 percent. Construction stocks rose 0.11 percent but construction group AEGEK eased 1.31 percent to 3.02 euros. Turnover was 69.59 million euros on 16.9 million stocks changing hands. Winners beat losers 263 to 57 with 40 shares unchanged on 360 traded. (Reuters) The Greek adventure
