THE CYPRUS bourse bared its teeth at bears yesterday to recoup most of Thursday’s losses in a see-saw session focused on periphery firms and Louis in particular.
Laiki, hammered in Thursday’s session, bounced back into form after some initial pressure while other
large caps like Globalsoft also dominated the market for its net gains.
However it was Louis which was singled out as a strong mover on the market yesterday. The stock fell to an intraday low of £1.20 in pre-trading, triggering an avalanche of buy orders which eventually topped a 5.6 million share turnover.
Louis eventually closed at £1.56, six cents lower than Thursday.
"There were lots of sellers on Louis yesterday and in pre-trading, so that triggered a lot of buying
interest," said stockbroker Costas Hadjigavriel. However, other brokers said the market was feeling the jitters of investors confused at Louis’s purchase of a controlling stake in associate firm Louis Hotels.
"They’re confused. They don’t have details on the transfer of shares to LCL and the issue is very
obscure," a senior trader at another stockbroking firm said.
Estimates put the LCL stake in Louis Hotels at 60 per cent, but uncertainty over the exact figure has
sewn confusion on how the share should be adjusted accordingly.
"The market has momentum and it is going very well," said Hadjigavriel. "I don’t think profit-taking is justified right now."
Laiki, which opened at a low of £12.78 and flirted with the £12.95-13.00 mark for most of the session, raced ahead in the closing minutes to end with a 20 cent gain at a close of £13.10.
Many thought that Laiki was a cheap paper at £12.78, said traders who had predicted the stock would bounce back after Thursday’s knee-jerk reaction by investors in the wake of Wednesday’s AGM.
The gain brought the advance of the Banking sector up 1.8 per cent.
Bank of Cyprus, which had been less affected by Thursday’s sell-off, climbed 15 cents to £8.45.
Fund managers said yesterday they had several queries from Greek investors on BoC’s IPO in Greece. Rumours had spread the Greek capital that BoC would announce a suspension of trading for next week yesterday afternoon. The suspension would have been the first stage in a book-building process for its initial public offering on the Greek market.
However, nothing was forthcoming from the Bank.
Insiders said the rumours were probably fuelled by disclosures one of the senior managers of BoC in Greece was visiting Nicosia headquarters this week.
"Nevertheless the Greeks do expect something within the next month," a fund manager at a Nicosia brokerage said.
