Stocks end sharply lower

A significant worsening of the climate in the Greek bond market, amid speculation of a debt restructuring, caused a negative effect on the Athens Stock Exchange on Thursday, pushing the composite index of the market below the 1,500 level again.

Bank shares came under heavy selling pressure. The index fell 2.83 pct to end at 1,487.76 points, with turnover rising slightly to 96.177 million euros. The Big Cap index dropped 3.41 pct, the Mid Cap index ended 2.11 pct down and the Small Cap index fell 1.76 pct. All sector indices ended lower with the Health (8.07 pct), Banks (5.02 pct) and Financial Services (3.90 pct) suffering the heaviest percentage losses of the day.

Piraeus Bank (5.88 pct), Eurobank (5.71 pct), ATEbank (5.36 pct), Alpha Bank (5.32 pct) and National Bank (5.20 pct) were top losers among blue chip stocks. Broadly, decliners led advancers by 118 to 29 with another 54 issues unchanged. Varvaressos (9.09 pct), General Trade (9.09 pct) and Karamolegos (8.45 pct) were top gainers, while Altec (16.67 pct), Douros (11.39 pct) and Alapis (11.11 pct) were top losers.

Sector indices ended as follows:
Insurance:	Unchanged
Industrials:	-1.92%
Commercial:	-0.04%
Construction:	-2.79%
Media:	-0.33%
Oil & Gas:	-0.99%
Personal & Household:	-1.11%
Raw Materials:	-1.31%
Travel & Leisure:	-1.91%
Technology:	-0.88%
Telecoms:	-1.02%
Banks:	-5.02%
Food & Beverages:	-1.46%
Health:	-8.07%
Utilities:	-2.84%
Chemicals:	-0.84%
Financial Services:	-3.90%

The stocks with the highest turnover were National Bank, OPAP, Coca Cola 3E and Alpha Bank.

Selected shares from the FTSE/ASE-20 index closed in euros as follows:
Alpha Bank:	4.27
ATEbank:	0.53
Public Power Corp (PPC):	11.51
HBC Coca Cola:	19.50
Hellenic Petroleum:	7.26
National Bank of Greece:	5.83
EFG Eurobank Ergasias:	3.96
OPAP:	15.25
OTE:	7.75
Bank of Piraeus:	1.28
Titan:	17.45