Share prices up for third day

By Hamza Hendawi

PAYING no heed to the brewing crisis in Glafcos Clerides’ Cabinet, share prices rose yesterday for the third successive day with the all-share index closing 0.62 per cent up at 122.11 to draw closer to the all-time high of 124.03 reached last month, traders said.

They appeared to be much more concerned with what the Popular Bank may have in store for investors than with what may become of embattled Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides, who said yesterday he planned to submit his resignation by today.

“The market has not reacted at all to the crisis. No one is interested,” said one trader. “What people are still very interested in is the Popular Bank.” He said he expected activity on the stock to remain heavy for some time still. The bank, the island’s second largest after the Bank of Cyprus, announced a two-for-one share split last week and an attractive 10-year, £30 million bond issue. Its share closed at £5.87 yesterday, 5.5 cents up on Tuesday.

Bank of Cyprus shares also closed in positive territory, 2.5 cents up at £5.58

with nearly 30 per cent of the market’s entire volume compared to the Popular’s 19.7 per cent.

“People are expecting a new rights issue or a bonus issue by the Popular Bank when the general annual meeting is held in May. That is what is maintaining the interest,” said the trader.

The market’s rise yesterday took to a combined 1.23 per cent the advances made so far this week, suggesting that a trend was taking shape of prices slowly clawing their way back across grounds lost when a swift correction movement suppressed a dramatic surge in prices last month.

Yesterday’s volume was £6.07 million, with only the sub-indices of investment companies and manufacturing finishing lower.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.