Stocks plummet 6.27% at Athens Exchange; 5.9 bln loss in market capitalization

Share prices plummetted 6.27% percent at the closing of trade on the Athens Stock Exchange on Monday, following the sell-off in European and international markets. The market closed at 1,340 points as fears of a U.S. recession drove European stock markets to a six-month low, restricting the index’s annual profits to 3.72%, while Japan’s Nikkei crashed 12.4% at close of trade – the biggest drop in its history.

In Athens, the drop was accompanied by a jump in turnover, while the market’s total capitalization dropped by 5.938 billion euros. The Large Cap index ended 6.53% lower and the Mid Cap index fell 6.26%. Turnover was 235.07 million euros in volume of 54,356,506 shares.

All Large Cap shares closed at a loss, with the greatest losses registered by Ellaktor (-9.18%), Piraeus Bank (-9.17%), Aegean Airlines (-8.51%), Viohalco (-8.39%) and Mytilineos (-8.31%). Alpha Bank and Eurobank were the most heavily traded securities of the day. Broadly, decliners led advancers by 112 to 1 (Papoutsanis, 0.85%, the only one to rise), with another 15 issues unchanged. Kordelos Bros (-11.64%) and General Commercial (-11.39%) were top losers.