Record low turnover at start of year

The Greek bourse began the new year yesterday with the lowest daily trading volume in almost fourand-a-half years: It narrowly managed to clear the 10-million-euro level on a day that was a bank holiday for many countries while the vast majority of stores in Greece were also closed. Still, most stocks posted moderate gains, with buying interest focused on the shares of banks and industrial firms.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed yesterday at 646.61 points, adding 0.46 percent to Friday’s 643.64 points. The largecap FTSE 25 index expanded 0.23 percent to close at 1,744.94 points.

The banks index advanced 1.01 percent, with mid-cap Attica Bank staging an impressive recovery of 27.59 percent. National grew 2.02 percent, Piraeus grabbed 1.44 percent and Eurobank improved 1.09 percent.

Viohalco was the best performing blue chip, increasing 4.80 percent, with Motor Oil following with a rise of 2.21 percent, while Hellenic Exchanges dropped 1.23 percent and Coca-Cola HBC fell 0.92 percent.

In total 54 stocks registered gains, 38 reported losses and 13 remained unchanged.

Turnover amounted to 10.4 million euros, down from Friday’s 30.3 million.

In Nicosia the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange declined 0.60 percent to close at 66.01 points.