(Update with full closing market report)
ATHENS (Thomson Financial) - Greek shares closed slightly lower, weighed by the negative international market sentiment, led down by the Bank of Piraeus and Hellenic Telecomms (OTE).
The ASE general index slid 0.2 pct to 5,236.4 and blue chips closed unchanged at 2,777.3. Mid caps lost 0.5 pct to 6,749.9 and small caps grew 0.4 pct to 1,145.5.
Decliners outnumbered advancers 151 to 93, while 81 were unchanged in very heavy trade of roughly 780 mln eur, which was skewed higher by several block trades.
Bank of Piraeus led blue-chip decliners and fell 1.5 pct to 26 eur after block trades of 2.96 pct of the bank changed hands at 26 eur per share in three off-the-board transactions. Sources told Thomson Financial News that 10 mln shares were sold between institutional investors in a portfolio reshuffle.
Telecom incumbent Hellenic Telecoms (OTE) lost 1.5 pct to 25.54 eur after saying it was fined another 3 mln eur by the local telecoms regulator and that its total outstanding fines by the regulator amount to 30 mln eur.
Betting technology company Intralot closed 1.3 pct lower at 29.2 eur on profit-taking after its recent outperformance.
Marfin Popular Bank rose 0.6 pct to 9.82 eur and the Bank of Cyprus climbed 3.6 pct to 13.58 eur. Unconfirmed press reports say the bank sold its remaining stake in the Bank of Cyprus yesterday, which totaled about about 8.2 mln shares.
National Bank of Greece fell 0.4 pct to 45.6 eur, unaffected by Credit Suisse reinitiating its coverage of the bank with an 'outperform' rating and target price of 50 eur on account of the bank's attractive fundamentals.
Bottler Coca-Cola HBC lost 0.9 pct to 40.5 eur on profit-taking after spiking yesterday on HSBC Secs report where the broker upped its target price to 43 eur from 36 eur previously.
Refrigeration group Frigoglass closed 1.6 pct higher at 24.4 eur and said that it will inaugurate its Chinese plant tomorrow, on time and within budget, less than a year after it obtained its business license.
Source: Euro2day.gr Newswire cheryl.novak@thomson.com cn/slj 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.
