Bank of Cyprus leads recovery in volatile market

BANK of Cyprus (BoC) shares yesterday recovered some of their lost value for the second day running, following ten days of volatility in the market.

The improvement in banking stocks resulted in gains of 1.6 per cent on the general index yesterday, following a 1.2 per cent recovery on Tuesday.

On Monday the market slid 6.32 per cent, due to continued pressure on BoC shares.
BoC losses last week dragged down both the CSE and the Athens bourse after analysts expressed disappointment with the bank’s future growth plans, calling them “weak”.

Yesterday the bank’s shares gained €0.20 to close at €7.74. Over €2 million in BoC shares was traded. Marfin Laiki also gained slightly but Hellenic Bank came under pressure and was heavily traded with transactions worth over €2 million. The stock dropped €0.02 to close at €3.06.

Finance Minister, Charilaos Stavrakis commented yesterday on the market’s volatility during a discussion programme on state radio.

Stavrakis said the recent market slide was due to internal and external pressures not related to the change in government.

There has been speculation that the island’s new communist-led government was driving investors away.

“I believe that this has nothing to do with the election of the new President since shares started to fall before. In some way, the CSE is the barometer of the Cypriot society and we should be alarmed by the sharp drop”, Stockwatch quoted him as saying.

“I understand that the SEC is carrying out investigations to see whether there was something illegal in this drop”, Stavrakis added.

The Minister was referring to an examination by the Securities and Exchange Commission of the buying and selling habits of institutional investors in recent days.

“The issue is short-term and we must see to what extent this problem can be fixed,” Stavrakis told CyBC.

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