SHARE prices ended 1.5 per cent up yesterday as the all-share index closed at 139.8 points, but blue chips lagged behind with only a 0.87 per cent rise to 537.4 points.
The index was heading uphill after reaching an intraday low of 135 points when a bomb scare interrupted trading at around 11am, half an hour into the session.
Police said an anonymous call saying there were two bombs in the building had been made to a private television station. Calls to the Cyprus Stock Exchange itself can be traced.
Trading resumed around midday after police gave the all clear, and the index witnessed a buying frenzy it had not seen for weeks upping recent poor volumes to £8 million.
All sectors except banks and financial services companies ended in the black, with gains ranging from 1.01 per cent in the construction sector to 6.72 per cent for technology companies.
The banking sector lost 0.07 per cent after taking a serious hammering on Thursday when it dropped over four per cent. Bank of Cyprus managed to gain one cent yesterday to end at £1.96, making it the most traded share of the day. Second on the list was Laiki Bank, which dropped four cents to £1.39, while Hellenic came in third, gaining four cents to 90 cents.
The three banks accounted for some 25 per cent of total volume.
Troubled GlobalSoft inched up three cents to close at 27 cents after 1.7 million of its shares were traded.
Overall, 99 titles gained compared to 42 decliners and 90, which ended the day unchanged.
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.
