Greek shares close lower on Bank of Cyprus, Eurobank UPDATE

Greek shares close lower on Bank of Cyprus, Eurobank UPDATE

	Published : Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:39 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Updates with full report)

ATHENS (AFX) - Greek shares closed lower with falls from Bank of Cyprus and EFG Eurobank on profit-taking more than offsetting gains from Intralot, dealers said.

The ASE general index ended down 0.53 pct at 4,705.03 points with decliners outnumbering advancers 188 to 82, with 48 unchanged.

The blue chip index lost 0.54 pct, closing at 2,560.16 points with mid caps also closing down 0.9 pct to 5,645.97 points and small caps down 0.30 pct to 912.46 points.

Betting technology company Intralot rose 2.0 pct to 26.22 eur on press reports that its management said that they will exceed their full year guidance of 700 mln eur for group sales.

Small cap household chemical products maker Lamda Detergent soared 5.4 pct to 7.82 eur after Deutsche Bank initiated coverage with a 'buy' rating and a target price of 9.40 eur, citing its growth potential in emerging European markets.

Hellenic Exchanges Holdings fell 3.2 pct to 17.80 eur after UBS cut its rating for the stock to 'neutral' from 'buy' due to its recent strong share price performance.

Hellenic Telecoms (OTE) ended up about 1.3 pct to 22.60 eur, rebounding after yesterday's selloff.

Bank of Cyprus reversed early gains and ended down about 2.5 pct to 11.86 eur on profit taking. Several brokers issued reports today upgrading their target prices as their full year results and new business plan released yesterday pleased analysts.

EFG Eurobank ended down 1.6 pct to 30.30 eur ahead of the announcement of its full year results due after the market close. Median consensus forecasts expect that group net profits will rise 30.3 pct year on year to 652.8 mln eur.

National Bank of Greece was 0.7 pct lower to 39.60 eur on news that it missed out on acquiring Ukrainian bank TAS Kommerzbank.

Marfin Popular Bank was 0.2 pct lower at 8.24 eur after it said that its 2006 full-year group net profits jumped 235 pct year-on-year to 396.6 mln eur under IFRS.

Source: Euro2day.gr NewsWire

cheryl@euro2day.gr

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