Greek shares slightly lower in early afternoon, led down by Intralot

ATHENS (Thomson Financial) - Greek shares were slightly lower in the early afternoon and in line with European peer bourses, led down by Intralot.

At 1.00 pm, the ASE general index slid 0.3 pct to 5,230.5 and blue chips were flat at 2,775.1. Mid caps lost 0.6 pct to 6,746 and small caps were little changed at 1,139.8.

Decliners outnumbered advancers 147 to 75 while 103 were unchanged.

Betting technology company Intralot led blue chip decliners and fell 1.4 pct to 29.18 eur on profit-taking after recently outperforming.

Bank of Piraeus was 1.3 pct lower at 26.06 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) slid 1.1 pct to 25.64 eur after saying that it was fined another 3 mln eur by the local telecoms regulator. It added that so far in 2007 its total fines by the regulator amount to 30 mln eur.

Marfin Popular Bank was unchanged at 9.76 eur and the Bank of Cyprus was leading blue chip gainers, up 2.7 pct to 13.46 eur. Unconfirmed press reports say the bank sold its remaining stake in the Bank of Cyprus yesterday, which totalled about 8.2 mln shares.

National Bank of Greece was just 0.2 pct lower at 45.72 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 dropped 0.9 pct to 40.5 eur after spiking yesterday on HSBC Securities' report, where the broker upped its target price to 43 eur from 36 eur previously and kept it at 'neutral'.

Refrigeration group Frigoglass rose 0.3 pct to 24.08 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 licence.

Source: Euro2day.gr Newswire [e-mail] cn/cm2 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.