MONEY poured in to the Cyprus stock market yesterday, registering the highest trading volume so far this year as institutional investors continued to take up positions.
The market registered daily gains of 0.3 per cent on its all-share index, though individual sectors like insurance and the service company sectors outperformed the broader sector with gains of 6.72 and 2.08 per cent respectively.
On traded values of £45.6 million, it was the highest that the market has registered for the past five months. The number of deals exceeded 10,000 at 11,071.
The market drew back from a stronger open by 1.7 per cent.
Traders said investors were becoming more savvy at getting in and out of the market in intraday trading, with one pointing to the relative ease with which they could sell stock early in the session, make a profit, then scoop the same paper back up 40 minutes later at a lower premium when it came under profit taking pressure.
However, some brokerages were cautioning yesterday that it was only a matter of time before the system would start creaking again if the number of deals continued to climb.
CSE officials earlier this week said the system could handle up to 15,000 deals a day, but some dealers say that the workload could allow a few errors to slip through, either by brokerages, registries of companies or the bourse itself.
The bourse has already incurred brokers’ wrath for trying to impose hefty fines for mistakes in settlement procedures. Some traders are contemplating legal action against the threats.
In individual sectors, the heavyweight banking index retreated 0.6 per cent.
Droushia Heights, which rose 16 cents to £1.13 on Thursday, came under some profit taking yesterday as it retreated a cent to £1.12 on a volume of 2.6 million shares.
Aiantas investment topped volume ranks with 3.7 million shares changing hands as it raked up a 2.9 point gain to 43.9 cents.
Cassoulides printers, which rose to prominence on the market on Thursday, came back down eight cents to £1.83 as it confirmed market rumours that it was in talks with Options on a possible merger. The matter has been referred to external consultants, the two companies said in separate statements to the CSE.
Options and Cassoulides reached agreement in January for a joint venture to publish magazines and newspapers.
On a weekly basis, the market has shown returns of 4.5 per cent. A higher advance was offset by a cumulative drop of 2.4 per cent on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Average traded values on a daily basis shot up 41 per cent to £35.4 million. Most transactions were absorbed by the other companies sector, followed by banking stocks.
