ATHEX: Index losing ground at growing pace

Stocks at Athinon Avenue took a big blow on Monday, as sellers took the upper hand after the first few minutes of the session and proceeded with increasing fervor till the end of the day. The benchmark as well as the banks index closed at the day's lows, attributes by some to the so-called "fall blues" and by others to the upcoming recovery of investment grade by Greece that means sellers have just a few more days to act before the buying pack is unleashed.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,267.33 points, shedding 2.47% from Friday's 1,299.47 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index contracted 2.92% to end at 3,060.34 points.

The banks index declined 4.28%, as National dropped 4.92%, Eurobank lost 4.85%, Alpha gave up 4.28% and Piraeus parted with 2.24%. Ellaktor slumped 4.70% and Aegean Airlines was down 4.39%, while Sarantis rose 0.39%.

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