Greek shares flat in quiet early afternoon, but OTE slumps

Greek shares flat in quiet early afternoon, but OTE slumps

	Published : Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:08 By : Agencies Print this Story

ATHENS (Thomson Financial) - Greek shares were flat in quiet early afternoon trade, roughly in line with the dull sentiment on European bourses, but Hellenic Telecomms was slumping.

At 1.00 pm, the ASE general index was flat at 5,289 and blue chips were little changed at 2,805. The mid cap index was just 0.03 pct higher at 6,804.7 and small caps grew 0.6 pct to 1,156.6.

Advancers outnumbered decliners 131 to 74 while 120 were unchanged.

Hellenic Telecomms (OTE) led blue chip decliners and dropped 3.1 pct to 26.14. Today, JP Morgan cut its rating to 'neutral' from 'overweight', according to dealers, based on valuation grounds. In other news, the Greek Minister of Finance said in an interview over the weekend that a placement of the Greek state's stake in OTE will not occur in the near future.

Bottler Coca-Cola HBC gained 0.7 pct to 40.9 eur after it said its extraordinary shareholders meeting approved the bonus issue of one new share for every two old.

Electricity utility Public Power Corp lost 1.6 pct to 28.52 eur after the Greek Minister of Finance George Alogoskoufis said that a placement of PPC is unlikely to occur within next two years. He added that the government will continue focusing on restructuring.

Marfin Popular Bank rose 1.5 pct to 10.36 eur after saying Friday that it will sell its 6.45 pct stake in Marfin Investment Group at the end of its compulsory holding period, which expires January 16, 2008.

National Bank of Greece rose 0.3 pct higher to 45.98 eur. It said that its public offer to buy out all minorities of insurance arm Ethniki Insurance at 5.5 eur per share will run between October 16 and November 13.

Source: Euro2day.gr Newswire

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