Multichoice props dormant market

By Jean Christou

The all-share index lost ten points this week, ending a dreary five-days of trading yesterday at 372.38 points or 1.07 per cent down on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Monday.

All sectors sustained losses ranging from a 2.4 per cent drop in the insurance sector to a small 0.12 per cent loss in the ‘other’ companies sector, only thanks to heavy trading in GlobalSoft and Multichoice stocks.

The index opened down at around 375 points, heading steadily towards the 370-point mark before lifting slightly five minutes before closing.

“We expect things to continue downwards for a while, at least until the end of the month,” broker Maria Anastasiou told the Cyprus Mail. “The index will go up and down between 350 and 400 but I don’t believe it will fall below 350.”

Volume yesterday stood at a respectable £19.17 million – by this week’s standards and considering Monday’s £9 million.

“The people who were selling have stopped,” said Anastasiou. “They don’t want to sell at these prices but there are no buyers either because there is no money.”

The market’s tight liquidity squeeze is leaving attractively priced blue chip stocks, particularly banking shares, tantalisingly out of reach of cash-strapped investors.

Bank of Cyprus (BoC) lost another five cents yesterday to close at £6.44, while Laiki plunged 19 cents to finish at £9.28. Hellenic also ended the week on a negative note, ending at £2.13, down 12 cents and in the process losing gains this week’s earlier gains. Small investors may be thin on the ground but one or two of the bigger investors came out of the closet yesterday to avail of some choice pickings.

Star players yesterday were Toxotis which jumped 20 cents to close at £2.58 with over 1.34 million shares traded, Europrofit which rose 19 cents to end at £2.43 and Liberty Life Insurance which added 13 cents to end at £2.60.

The most actively traded stock, after Toxotis, was Multichoice with 1.26 million shares changing hands, pulling the price up six cents. The share closed at £1.10.

GlobalSoft ended a successful week with no change and over 750,000 shares traded and the highest cash volume, nearly 20 per cent of the total.

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.