BOC roars past CYP 2 mark

Bank of Cyprus shares roared past the CYP 2.00 level, touching an intra-day high of CYP 2.03 on the CSE on Thursday before closing at CYP 2.01 per share while in Greece, the Bank’s shares continued their upward march, trading at EUR 3.56 or CYP 2.04 in mid-day Thursday trading.

BOC shares attracted 848.000 shares volume on the CSE for a value of CYP 1.7 mln, which contributed 70% of the total volume of CYP 2.47 mln transacted on the CSE on Thursday.

Immediately after trading started, BOC shares jumped sharply higher, at one point touching the 2.03 level, before trading lower to close at CYP 2.01 for a daily gain of 3.6%.

The jump in the shares of BOC was instrumental in pulling the rest of the market higher, with the CSE Main/Parallel index ending 2.47% higher at 1293 points, a new record high since the index was launched in September 2004.

The CSE GENX meanwhile closed 2.09% higher at 89.42 points, while the FTSE/CySE closed 2.5% higher at 434.75 points. The number of trades jumped to 1185 with 46 titles closing higher, 27 lower, 19 unchanged while there was no trading on 77 other titles.

In Greece meanwhile, by 1.30pm, the BOC shares were trading at a fresh high of EUR 3.56 or CYP 2.04 for a daily gain of 2.3% on 2 mln shares volume for a value of EUR 7.1 mln or CYP 4 mln, which was nearly double of the total volume transacted on the CSE.

In other stocks, the shares of Laiki Bank closed 1.4% firmer at CYP 1.44 while Hellenic Bank was 1.5% firmer closing at 45 cent. LUI fell 0.55% at 18.2 cent after reporting disappointing first half results.

Market attention on Friday is expected to turn to the announcement of the first half results by BOC, with a poll conducted by the Financial Mirror forecasting an 80% gain in first half profits to CYP 29.3 mln from CYP 16.2 mln a year ago.