(Update with full closing market report)
ATHENS (Thomson Financial) - Greek shares closed sharply lower on account of the negative European market sentiment and Wall Street's lower opening.
The ASE general index dropped 1.1 pct to 5,117.4 and the blue chip index fell 1.3 pct to 2,711.8. Mid caps lost 1.3 pct to 6,418.4 and small caps were closed 1.8 pct lower at 1,040.6.
Decliners outnumbered advancers 242 to 32, while 52 were unchanged in heavy trade of roughly 534 mln eur.
Bank of Piraeus lost 1.7 pct to 26.34 eur, weighed by the market sentiment and investors cashing in on yesterday's gains. Today, the bank announced it has submitted a non-binding offer for the private Ukrainian bank KreditProm.
Betting technology Intralot led blue chip decliners and fell 3.4 pct to 14.1 eur while Titan Cement dropped 3.2 pct to 31.94 eur, both dragged lower by the negative sentiment.
Engineering and metals holding company Mytilineos dropped 2.8 pct to 35.68 eur on profit-taking after it said its nine month group sales rose just 3.8 pct to 675 mln eur. Its engineering unit Metka announced flat nine month results yesterday and fell 1.4 pct to 15.4.
S&B Industrial Minerals ended 1.4 pct lower at 12.82 eur. It announced that its nine month net profits grew 21.9 pct year-on-year to 23.72 mln eur on account of strong sales.
Marfin Popular Bank lost 0.7 pct to 10.2 eur, also on the poor sentiment. In an announcement to the ASE, responding to several press reports, the bank states that it is not considering submitting a non-binding bid for KreditProm bank.
Hellenic Telecomms (OTE) shed early gains and closed unchanged at 25.78 eur after ING cutting it to 'hold' from 'buy', citing its recent outperformance.
Lottery operator OPAP ended just 0.3 pct lower at 26.72 eur. A Thomson Financial News analysts consensus poll sees its nine month group net profit rising 14 pct year-on-year to 405 mln eur, when it announces its results on Nov 21.
Bottler Coca-Cola HBC recovered earlier losses and closed 0.3 pct higher at 27.8 eur after Deutsche Bank hiked its target price to 30 eur from 25.33 eur and kept the stock at 'buy'.
Source: Euro2day.gr Newswire
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