SELLING WAS the order of the day on the CSE again yesterday with the all-share index losing another 2.01 per cent on top of Monday’s disastrous 4.5 per cent drop.
Trading opened at 236 points, eight points down on the previous day’s close, dropped as far as 234 before rebounding to close at 238.6, a new year low.
Volume remained low at £14.9 million as losers outpaced gainers by 119 to 30 with 57 companies remaining unchanged.
Sectoral losses ranged from 0.27 per cent in construction and technology to 3.17 per cent for hotels.
The banking sector was also hard hit with losses of 2.56 per cent led by plunging Bank of Cyprus (BoC) and Laiki stocks. BoC shed another 13 cents yesterday to close at £4.26 while Laiki dropped 16 cents to end at £5.29. Trading in the two banking stocks accounted for almost half the day’s volume.
In Athens BoC fared little better losing 3.28 per cent to close at 2,650 drachmas (£4.43) after hitting an intraday low of 2,515 drachmas (£4.20) with over 60,000 shares changing hands. The Greek market fell 2.98 per cent yesterday and the banking sector 2.28 per cent.
The third most active share traded on the CSE yesterday was GlobalSoft with a volume of £1.2 million. The share was one of the day’s few winners, adding ten cents to close at £5.30.
“This is the fourth trading session at the IMC and all four have been disastrous,” said the CSE web analyst yesterday. “Not to be superstitious but it seems that the new place is jinxed. All that talk and excitement about finally moving into a new place has backfired and the show goes on as usual.”
ENDS
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.
