The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) generated profits of one billion euros over the first quarter of 2017, with the bourse’s capitalization totaling 46 billion euros as of Friday, the last day of March.
By I. Zafolia
[email protected]
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) generated profits of one billion euros over the first quarter of 2017, with the bourse’s capitalization totaling 46 billion euros as of Friday, the last day of March.
The ASE’s general index was up by 3.48 percent, closing at 666.06.
Conversely, "bearish" pressures on bank shares – which dominate the ASE’s capitalization value – caused the banks index to drop by nearly 11 percent over the same trimester.
The average daily turnover reached 41.3 million, and the average volume of transactions was calculated at 70.3 million shares.
Investors appear optimistic that the Greek government will finally conclude a second review of the Greek program (third bailout) in the coming days, ergo a surge in buying on the ASE in the run-up.
The last week of March 2017, in fact, was the best so far this year in terms of performance on the big board and in value of transactions.
The “top five” shares on the ASE, based on their capitalization, are Coca Cola HBC AG (8.85 billion euros); OTE, the leading telecoms provider in Greece (4.3 billion euros); the lottery and betting pools operator, OPAP (2.78 billion euros); Alpha Bank (2.6 billion euros) and National Bank of Greece (2.2 billion euros).