By Hamza Hendawi
SHARE prices ended marginally lower yesterday, but were up one per cent on the week. The Cyprus Stock Market all-share index closed at 155.05, up 0.19 per cent on Thursday.
Traders said investors, as in the past few days, maintained their interest in non-banking stocks now that the blue-chips of the two main banks — Bank of Cyprus and Popular bank — have stabilised after weeks of meteoric rises.
“Many investors cashed in on their bank stocks on high levels and are now showing interest in stocks which are often neglected despite their good fundamentals,” said Koullis Panayiotou of the leading CLR brokerage.
Interestingly, Cyprus Airways, the national carrier often plagued by acrimonious industrial relations, led the non-banking stocks in terms of investors’ interest. In the second successive day of life in the limelight, 888,310 of the usually dormant shares changed hands yesterday, accounting for 7.2 per cent of the day’s total trade.
The share closed up 4.5 cents at £0.58 apiece, a year’s high. On Thursday, nearly 300,000 of the airline’s shares were traded, notching up three cents.
Beside the interest shown by investors in many non-banking titles, traders said, the Cyprus Airways’ shares appeared to pull speculators on the back of reports that a rights issue by the company would be announced later this month.
The company, in which the government has an 82 per cent stake, last week said its 1999 profit prospects looked good and that it planned to pay shareholders a final dividend of 4.7 cents.
A company spokesman yesterday said that Cyprus Airways’ authorised capital of £75 million would be increased to £100 million later this month in a move aimed at reducing the government’s stake in the company to below 70 per cent to meet stock market regulations.
Cyprus Airways pilots have offered to buy 12 per cent of the company’s share capital, a move that could give them two representatives on the company’s board. But a Cyprus Airways’ spokesman said earlier this week that any decision on the issue rested with the government and not the company.
Other shares which have in recent days attracted investors include Libra Holidays. Trade in the stock yesterday began a two-week suspension requested by the company ahead of a two-for-five share split announced last week.
The split will come into force on June 30 and the nominal value of the share will be reduced from 25 cents to 10 cents.
In a statement issued this week, the company said that reservations for the company’s package holidays in Greece and Cyprus had dramatically increased in Britain for the year ending next September and that it planned to apply to British aviation authorities for an increase in the seats earmarked for the company from 159,000 to 190,000.
Other announcements that deepened interest in the so-called peripheral shares included one by Nicos Shacolas’ Woolworth and CTC that the two trading companies are forming a new company with a Greek partner to set up two chain stores for training on recent technologies such as databanks and palmtops and one providing services on home computing and business solutions.
Both titles were traded heavily on Thursday and also yesterday.
In the banking sector, all four listed banks finished in negative territory yesterday with Hellenic Bank the biggest loser, closing 4.50 cents down at £4.21. The Bank of Cyprus was next on the losing trail, shedding three cents to close at £6.73 but accounting for 15 per cent of the day’s trade.
The Popular Bank, ending its second week after a two-for-one split, closed down by a single cent at £3.75.
