Greek stocks ended slightly lower in the last trading session of a nervous week in the Athens Stock Exchange on Friday. Traders said the market remained volatile ahead of a crucial Eurogroup meeting.

The composite index eased 0.27 pct to end at 854.15 points, off the day’s highs of 871.51 points and after falling as much as 1.80 pct earlier in the day. The index ended the week with a net loss of 4.46 pct, for a rise of 18.31 pct so far in February and up 3.39 pct in 2015. The Large Cap index eased 0.16 pct and the Mid Cap index ended 0.41 pct lower.

Turnover was a heavy 212.01 million euros. National Bank (6.67 pct), Piraeus Port (4.21 pct), OTE (3.47 pct), Viohalco (3.0 pct) were top gainers among blue chip stocks, while Eurobank (6.25 pct), Jumbo (4.34 pct), Folli Follie (3.98 pct) and Athens Water (3.43 pct) suffered the heaviest percentage losses of the day.

Among market sectors, Media (10 pct), Telecoms (3.47 pct) and Chemicals (2.62 pct) scored big gains, while Commerce (3.97 pct), Personal Products (3.93 pct) and Financial Services (1.66 pct) suffered heavily.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 65 to 55 with another 23 issues unchanged. Pasal (19.28 pct), AXON Holdings (18.75 pct) and Selonda (18.42 pct) were top gainers, while Moda Bagno (20.55 pct), Unibios (16.11 pct) and Attikat (15.79 pct) were top losers.

Sector indices ended as follows:

Banks: +0.75%
Insurance: -0.75%
Financial Services: -1.66%
Industrial Products: +0.97%
Commercial: -3.97%
Real Estate: -0.60%
Personal & Household: -3.93%
Food & Beverages: -0.26%
Raw Materials: +0.72%
Construction: -0.21%
Oil: -0.90%
Chemicals: +2.62%
Mass Media: +10.00%
Travel & Leisure: -1.25%
Technology: -1.12%
Telecoms: +3.47%
Utilities: -1.37%
Health: -0.56%

The stocks with the highest turnover were National Bank, Piraeus Bank, Eurobank and Alpha Bank.

Selected shares from the FTSE/ASE Large Cap index closed in euros as follows:

Alpha Bank: 0.37
Public Power Corp (PPC): 6.05
Coca Cola HBC: 15.56
Hellenic Petroleum (ELPE): 4.25
National Bank of Greece: 1.44
OPAP: 8.30
OTE: 7.76
Piraeus Bank: 0.616
Titan: 23.46
Grivalia Properties: 8.09
Aegean Airlines: 7.50

ADEX closing report

The March contract on the FTSE/ASE Large Cap index was trading at a discount of 0.62 pct in the Athens Derivatives Exchange on Friday. Volume on the Big Cap index totalled 24,647 contracts with 47,934 open positions in the market. Volume in futures contracts on equities totalled 77,828 contracts with investment interest focusing on Eurobank’s contracts (22,167), followed by Alpha Bank (15,340), Piraeus Bank (14,220), National Bank (18,495), MIG (2,017), OTE (2,453), PPC (683), OPAP (1,027), Mytilineos (181), Hellenic Petroleum (119), GEK (181), Ellaktor (89), Folli Follie (95) and Jumbo (212).

Greek bond market closing report

Greek bond yields were slightly changed in the domestic electronic secondary bond market on Friday, as the market awaited the outcome of a crucial Eurogroup meeting.

The three-year bond yield eased to 16.80 pct from 17.0 pct on Thursday and the five-year bond yield eased to 14.2 pct from 14.3 pct. The yield spread between the 10-year Greek and German benchmark bonds rose slightly to 9.36 pct from 9.32 pct with the Greek bond yielding 9.70 pct and the German Bund yielding 0.34 pct. Turnover was a thin 9.0 million euros, of which 4.0 million were buy orders and the remaining 5.0 million euros were sell orders.

In interbank markets, interest rates moved lower. The 12-month rate eased to 0.250 pct from 0.252 pct, the nine-month rate fell to 0.180 pct from 0.184 pct, the six-month rate eased to 0.124 pct from 0.125 pct, the three-month rate was unchanged at 0.048 pct and the one-month rate rose to 0.001 pct.

Foreign Exchange rates

U.S. dollar 1.129
Pound sterling 0.734
Danish kroner 7.461
Swedish kroner 9.521
Japanese yen 133.91
Swiss franc 1.071
Norwegian kroner 8.593
Canadian dollar 1.407
Australian dollar 1.439

FINANCIAL NEWS

**** Income from exports of goods jumped to new record highs in 2014, totalling 23.64 billion euros, up 4.9 pct compared with 2013, the Panhellenic Federation of Exporters said in a report released on Friday.
The Federation, in an analysis of Bank of Greece data released earlier on the country’s current account balance, said that income from export of goods accounted for 87 pct of all export income (27.17 billion euros a three-year record). This rate was 81.7 pct in 2013.

The analysis attributed a more rapid growth of export income to better-than-expected performance of exports in December 2014 (up 8.33 pct to 2.01 billion euros) compared with December 2013. In December, the rate of income from exports of goods accounted for 92 pct of total exports in the month.

International reports showed that Greek exporters are forced to offer larger repayment times, compared with other West European exporters (66 days from 52 days on average in Europe).

**** The Greek online retail market grew significantly in the last few years, helped by lower prices and a gradual familiarization of consumers with technology, a report by Infobank Hellastat said on Thursday.

The report, based on a survey by Eltrun, showed that total sales by Greek and foreign e-shops to Greek consumers totalled 3.2 billion euros in 2013, up 25 pct from the previous year, while the market is estimated to have grown further in 2014 as consumers raised their online purchases by around 10 pct during the year.

The number of online consumers totalled 2.2 million in 2013, from 1.9 million in 2012, or 35 pct of Internet users in Greece, significantly lower compared with a 70 pct rate in Western Europe. A 60-65 pct of purchases were made from Greek websites, while European consumers prefer their national websites for 90 pct of their purchases.

Greek e-shops have been upgrading their services in sectors such as transaction security, alternative payment methods, functionality and accessibility, along with support services. A 70 pct of e-shops offered details of their transaction terms in 2013, up from 61 pct in 2012, while a 10 pct was characterized as risky because of lack of corporate information. A 81 pct of e-shops offered the use of credit cards and a 72 pct of debit cards.

“The sector has room for even larger growth, given the economic conditions prevailing in Greece and the low –compared with other European countries- number of online buyers in the country,” Chrysostomos Katsis, chief executive of Infobank Hellastat said.

**** The Greek state paid 6.949 billion euros to repay part of its overdue debt to the private sector in 2014, official figures showed on Thursday.

A report by the General Accounting Office said that payment approvals totalled 7.133 billion euros, while disbursements totalled 6.949 billion euros. Payment approvals totalled 5.351 billion euros in 2013.

The report said that from the 6.949 billion euros paid to the private sector, 3.8 billion euros were repayments to suppliers of state hospitals, the healthcare system and municipal authorities.

***** Greek industrial turnover composite index, measuring both the domestic and external markets, fell by 8.9 pct in December, compared with the same month in 2013, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday. The statistics service, in a report, attributed this development to a 7.5 pct rise in mining turnover index and a 9.1 pct decline in the manufacturing turnover index. The domestic index fell 9.7 pct and the external market index fell 7.8 pct in December.

The industrial turnover index fell 1.4 pct in the January-December 2014 period, on average, after a decline of 5.9 pct recorded in 2013.

**** Greek building materials’ prices fell 2.0 pct in January, reflecting a decline in international oil prices and a shrinking building activity in the country. Hellenic Statistical Authority, in a report, said that diesel prices fell 19.3 pct, steel pipes fell 7.3 pct, window prices dropped 4.6 pct, security door prices fell 3.2 pct, cement prices fell 2.8 pct, interior door prices eased 2.7 pct, while bricks and electricity prices grew 5.7 pct and 4.9 pct, respectively in the first month of 2015.

The statistics service said that the building materials’ price index fell 2.0 pct in January, compared with January 2013, and eased 0.3 pct compared with December 2014.