By Hamza Hendawi
MISERY on the Cyprus Stock Exchange persisted yesterday for the fourth consecutive session and not even the debut splash of Athienitis & Severis, one of the island’s top investment houses, could stop prices from sliding further.
Athienitis & Severis shares have a nominal value of £0.50 and were sold through private placement and IPO at £2 apiece. The share hit the market yesterday at £20 but closed at £18.50 on a decent volume of £1.79 million.
The much-heralded arrival of the share, whose tiny IPO was oversubscribed several hundred times, was something of a welcome relief on an exchange floor where prices have fallen by nearly 16 per cent since last Thursday in what many now believe to be the once-dreaded correction to the massive gains of the past six months.
There were at least 16 people in the Athienitis & Severis cubicle on the trading floor, of whom only six were seated. Beside the 16, senior company employees hovered around brokers, while partners Nicos Severis and Stavros Athienitis, after whom the company is named, looked on with obvious contentment.
The jubilation over the new share, which may have made a few instant millionaires yesterday, was not enough to arrest the market’s downward trend.
The exchange’s all-share index bled 18.49 points, or 2.53 per cent, to close at 713.29. The latest skid takes up to nearly 100 points the market’s losses since it reopened a week ago today after a three-day closure.
Volume yesterday was £25.89 million, of which more than £9 million went to the blue-chips of the banks.
All seven sectors of the market finished in negative territory yesterday, with manufacturing the biggest loser for the second day in a row. The sector’s sub-index was down 8.85 per cent yesterday, adding to the woes of a 11.39 per cent drop on Monday. The sub-index dropped by more than six per cent each day of Thursday and Friday last week.
Banks yesterday continued their losing streak, with the Bank of Cyprus — the market’s giant and darling in one — was down £0.25 at £10.44, while the Popular Bank was off by £0.66 at £13.94.
Hellenic made a partial recovery from the mauling it received on Monday, finishing the day up by only 11 cents to close at £4.52.
Only Orphanides in the three-company trade sector made any gains — sister companies Woolworth and CTC were down 29 and 19 cents respectively.
Libra Holidays Group yesterday announced that it had taken a majority stake in British-based tour operator Goldenjoy, but that did not stop the share from sliding by £0.17 to close at £6.8. Goldenjoy specialises in package holidays from Britain to Egypt, according to a statement issued by Libra.
