THE BOURSE ended the year with overall losses of 64 per cent as the index fell a further 2.18 per cent yesterday to close at 244.5 points, a far cry from the 700 points with which it began the year.
Trading opened slightly under Thursday’s close but just when it looked as if the index would head north it began to slide steadily hitting a low of 242 before a slight rally in the last five minutes.
Volume was high at £21 million but blue chips continued their downward trend with the FTSE/CySE closing 3.03 per cent down at 1,017 points.
All but three of the bourse’s sub-sectors, fish farms, tourism and manufacturing ended in the red with the heaviest losses sustained in the banking sector – down 3.52 per cent.
Bank of Cyprus (BoC) headed closer to the three-pound mark shedding another ten cents to close at £3.15 while rival Cyprus Popular Bank ended the day 11 cents poorer at £3.03.
In Athens BoC ended the year on a positive note, gaining 1.9 per cent to close at 2,125 drachmas (£3.55) after hitting an intraday low of 1,910 (£3.19).
The CSE’s most active share yesterday was CLR Investments, heavily traded on a volume of £1.4 million with over five million shares changing hands.
Profit taking on two of Thursday’s main gainers, Pharmakas and Europrofit dragged them back by nine cents and six cents respectively to £1.38 and £1.81.
GlobalSoft continued its slide shedding another 13 cents to £5.09 as did Sharelink, which ended four cents down at £1.34.
Newcomer Kanika Hotels debuted at 40 cents but ended the session at 36 cents after hitting an intraday high of 41 cents
The majority of the analysts suggest that the CSE has reached its real value after a year of hard lessons and will stabilise around the 250 mark.
“Unfortunately we will leave the year with memories of a stock exchange that opened the year at 700 but is leaving with losses amounting to 64 per cent,” said one CSE analyst. “We all hoped the index would end the year on an upward note but it seems it was not to be.”
Another analyst expressed the hope that when the exchange reopens on Tuesday investors might display a renewed optimism and confidence in the CSE.
“But 2000 will always be remembered as the year when a lot of money was made by the few and a lot was lost by the masses,” he said.
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.
