TWENTY FOUR hours before the long-awaited messianic debut of the Bank of Cyprus (BoC) on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) share prices slid to a new year low with many investors not prepared to wait and see.
The all-share index lost ground from the opening of yesterday’s session and headed into a steep decline from which it never recovered. Prices dropped 0.84 per cent with the index closing at 289.6 points while volume stood at a mere £13.1 million reflecting a mainly selling trend.
All but four of the 12 sectors ended in losses of between 0.23 per cent for construction companies to a whopping 2.37 per cent in the tourism sector where all five listed companies suffered losses.
Gainers included the insurance sector, up 1.87 per cent, financial 1.33 per cent, fisheries 1.24 per cent and hotels 0.91 per cent. Here Dome jumped 39 cents to £13 and Aqua Sol added one cent to 44 cents.
Last week’s newcomer Tsokkos continued to defy the odds to add two cents to end at 40 cents with 1.3 million shares traded. The banking sector ended one per cent in the red with BoC shedding another eight cents to end at £5.31, nine cents above its ASE listing price of £5.22. Laiki also felt the pinch, dropping nine cents to close at £6.89.
The two banks plus GlobalSoft accounted for over one third of the day’s volume, the IT giant alone garnering some 20 per cent, £2.3 million, although the stock lost five cents, ending at £5.87. Logicom also lost big, shaving off 14 cents to close at £4.26.
Of the few winners yesterday, Liberty Life Insurance gained eight cents to close at £1.91 and Laiki investments added six cents to £1.09. Yesterday’s debut from Aristo Developers failed to shake either the market or the construction sector, opening at 67 cents, three cents under its IPO price.
The share traded on a volume of nearly a million before closing at 62 cents. The company’s investment arm fared little better shedding four cents to close at 53 cents. Brokers are reluctant to make predictions about today’s BoC listing. “Unless things go drastically wrong I doubt there will be much of an effect here,” said one. “Actually getting the whole thing over with will be a relief in itself with all the hype that’s been surrounding it.”
