ASE Lower In Choppy Trade
The Athens Stock Exchange ended down 0.3% on Thursday, remaining into negative territory throughout most of the session. The total turnover was again very low, very far from the year’s average.
"The Athens bourse was able to recover from earlier lows and stabilize towards the end of another choppy and lightly traded session," a senior local equity analyst told Dow Jones Newswires. "Consolidation and potentially some window dressing for pressured blue-chip stocks is on the cards for Friday΄s year-ending session that will be shortened by two hours and finish at 1320 GMT."
The developments regarding the Greek public debt remain on spotlight, along with the continuing rise of Greek bond spreads and their impact on the banking sector. Concern is unlikely to disappear soon as investors need to be convinced through further evidence of support from the European Union.
Under these circumstances, a substantial recovery in trading activity is not expected soon, and a further decline of the ASE can’t be ruled out.
Across the board, the General Index recorded losses of 0,30%%, ending at 1.423,92points, remaining into negative territory throughout the session. On Wednesday, approximately 11.67 million shares worth only 42.51 million euro were traded in Athens Stocks, while a total amount of 64 stocks closed in positive territory, 87 declined and 150 remained unchanged.
Hellenic Telecoms and Public Power Corp. moved down by 2.4% and 1.3% respectively, while Coca-Cola 3E rose by 1.4%.
Banks moved down, posting marginal losses of 0.36% at 1267.92 units. Eurobank and Alpha Bank declined by 2.3% and 2.2% respectively, while Marfin Popular Bank climbed by 4.72%. Piraeus Bank and National Bank posted small losses of 0.27% and 0.16% respectively.
(capital.gr)