STOCKS yesterday declined 1.9 per cent with newcomer Aiantas sparking some disappointment among investors after opening lower than its par value of 50 cents.
Aiantas’ opening price of 40 cents caused some consternation among brokers, while company board member and stockbroker Yiannos Andronikou said other brokerages had put pressure on the stock at its debut, sparking a sell-off.
"There was an attempt in pre-trading to pressure the stock, and that caused some sales by investors. The matter will be reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission," he told reporters.
Traders said they had seen orders posted for Aiantas for even one cent. The Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) later said the hiccup was due to a technical glitch.
It is not the first time that brokers have reported that their own colleagues have attempted to manipulate
the market, usually to drag it lower. None of the allegations has, however, been substantiated.
But the CSE did announce late yesterday afternoon that due to some "problems which were being
investigated", low prices were posted into the trading system which affected not only Aiantas, but also Keo nil-paid rights.
"Once the pre-trading session was over these orders had no bearing on any prices," the CSE said.
Aiantas topped the day’s volume ranks with 1.37 million shares traded. It closed on a last trade of 43 cents. Andronikou said he was certain the share would rebound.
For the second day in a row shares ended in negative territory. The general index eased by 9.17 points to settle at 459.80 as volume shrank to ,17.1 million on limited buying interest.
Banks provided support, outperforming with a 1.5 per cent decline while tourism stocks fell seven
per cent. Medium cap insurance shares slipped 0.9 per cent and industrials were off 2.9 per cent.
Traders said investors were still hesitant to jump into the market, and the perceived lack of government
aid for the bourse was demoralising them further. "The market is directionless at the moment," one said.
Market heavyweights Bank of Cyprus and Laiki were both down by 14 and 17 cents respectively. Hellenic was down six cents. The smallest bank, Universal Savings, jumped 53 cents to 5.83.
It reported preliminary pre-tax earnings of ,594,780 yesterday, up 67.1 per cent from 1998. The bank said net profit rose 64.5 per cent to ,450,513 while earnings per share rose to 5.6 cents from 4.9 in 1998.
Universal, which has a network of nine branches, said deposits nearly doubled in the year under review to ,84 million.
Ceilfloor, which also posted its preliminary results yesterday, was off five cents to 1.70. The company
said that pre-tax profits rose to ,212,548, an increase of 82 per cent. Net gains rose to ,369,977.
