(Updates with full report)
ATHENS (Thomson Financial) - Greek shares closed flat as Coca-Cola HBC (CCHBC) gains offset ATEBank and National Bank of Greece (NBG) losses in a session of uneventful trade.
The ASE general index closed flat at 5,146.6 and blue chips ended just 0.1 pct lower at 2,702.7. Mid caps edged 0.2 pct higher to 6,728.2 and small caps slid 0.3 pct to 1,137.9.
Decliners outnumbered advancers 130 to 120 while 77 were unchanged in very heavy trade of roughly 782 mln eur, which was skewed higher by a series of block trades.
Bottler Coca-Cola HBC jumped 2.2 pct to 41 eur to lead blue chip gainers after Lehman Brothers upped its target price to 39 eur from 33.5 previously and kept the stock at neutral, citing the company's accelerating margin momentum.
ATEBank led blue chip decliners and fell 2.9 pct to 4.02 eur while the National Bank of Greece slid 1.4 pct to 44 eur, both on profit taking after recent solid performance.
Titan Cement rose 1.1 pct to 36.3 eur after press reports said its Albanian unit Antea Cement SA signed a 99-year agreement with the Albanian Ministry of Finance for excavation of raw materials in the country to supply its cement plants.
Betting technology company Intralot grew 1 pct to 28.66 eur, helped by a spate of recent upbeat broker reports citing new international project wins.
Refiner Motor Oil closed 1 pct higher at 18.7 eur after its coverage was initiated by ATE Securities with a 22.12 eur target price and 'overweight' rating, with the broker citing its recent underperformance and good fundamentals.
Investment holding company Marfin Investment Group (MIG) closed unchanged at 6.7 eur after it said it now controls a 51.3 pct stake in passenger shipper Attica Group, confirming what sources had told Thomson Financial news yesterday. Attica Group was down 2.5 pct to 5.48 eur on the same news.
Electricity utility Public Power Corp ended up 0.5 pct at 27.66 eur after announcing it plans to delay its investment presentation, which was scheduled for October, until Nov 21.
Source: Euro2day.gr Newswire cheryl.novak@thomson.com cn/lam COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
