SHARES heaved themselves off the floor of the market yesterday, rebounding 1.75 per cent in an across-the-board rise led by insurance firms, one of the casualties of this week’s slump.
Driven by expectations of government incentives to support the market, the all-share index rallied for the first 45 minutes, succumbed to some intraday profit-taking in the next 45 and ended with a gain of 8.7 points.
The benchmark index settled at 507.26, but hit a high of 511.97 points early on in the session from an opening level of 505.81, eight points higher than Thursday’s close.
"We are seeing some very strong support at 500 points," said a trader. "Expectations of government measures to tone up the market are helping."
Turnover reached £22.2 million, absorbed mainly by the banking heavyweights, which absorbed £8.2 million of the total and rose 0.83 per cent.
Insurance firms, battered early in the week on the negative sentiment that swept the market, shored up 6.06 per cent to be the day’s highest sectoral gainer.
Tourism stocks followed with a 3.7 per cent gain.
"It is good to see the market stabilising over the 500 point. Prices were very attractive after Thursday," said stockbroker Costas Shamtanis.
Intraday fluctuations, which saw the market surge by more than 2.5 per cent at one point, were normal, he added.
Banks remained the highest capitalised sector with a 42 per cent slice of the market’s £10 billion capitalisation.
Bank of Cyprus lifted itself off a nine-month low to close at £8.09 pounds yesterday on a volume of 453,383 shares, while Laiki Bank raked in a 19 cent gain to close at £13.14 pounds. Hellenic Bank, which is due to announce its 1999 earnings next week, gained two cents to close at 3.06.
Louis Cruise Lines topped volume ranks, holding steady at £1.93 on 1.3 million shares changing hands.
Financial powerhouses ShareLink and Severis & Athienitis raked in the day’s highest gains: a 10.9 per cent surge for ShareLink to £19 and a 5.8 per cent jump for Severis&Athienitis to £18.95.
On a weekly basis, three days of declines this week have seen the all-share CSE index fall by 7.34 per cent.
That translates into a 28.9 per cent drop since January 1, or a 42 per cent drop from the market’s all-time high of 881 points on November 29 last year.
Recriminations among floor players of a bear play and talk of price manipulation, which has sorely dented sentiment, appeared to be fading out yesterday, though there were murmurs on the market that the media had also played a crucial role in the market’s negative climate.
There were also reports out yesterday that brokers were heard clapping on their secluded trading floor when the market fell 4.2 per cent on Thursday as small investors downstairs were staging mock funerals. Many traders asked dismissed the claim.
"I didn’t see anything. I was too busy working," one trader said deadpan to the CyBC.
