Morgan Stanley & Co. International have upped their stake in Bank of Cyprus by a further 2.26 mln shares to a total of 6 mln shares during the last fortnight and together with a new German investor were the principle players helping support the rally on the BOC shares, according to Financial Mirror estimates based on the share registry of the Bank.
Since the BOC shares broke through the EUR 3.44 or CYP 1.97 level, they have rallied by 28% in recent weeks to a record high of EUR 4.18 or CYP 2.40 in Greece on the back of major institutional purchases by mostly foreign funds.
Morgan Stanley appears to be one of the most aggressive players, but there are also others according to the Financial Mirror findings. The new entrant into the BOC share registry in Greece is the German BayerischeHypo und Vereinsbank, which purchased 1.2 mln shares during the last fortnight. Deutsche Bank, which earlier in the month issued a bullish report on the back forecasting gains to EUR 4.8 or CYP 2.75 has upped its stake by 50,000 shares to 2 mln.
On the other hand, there were considerable sales during the period under review. Pictet & Co. of Geneva reduced its stake from 1.8 mln shares to 953,000, Commerzbank reduced its stake from 902,000 to 602,000, Bear Sterns reduced its stake by 50,000 shares to 440,000, Rockland by 205.000 shares to 2.8 mln while Universal Life saw its stake cut from 3.65 mln shares to 3.51 mln shares.
Well bid
During Tuesday trading, BOC shares were well bid in Greece, gaining 0.5% to EUR 4.10 or CYP 2.35 on 295.000 shares volume for a value of EUR 1.19 mln or CYP 685,000, in line with a positive close on Sophocleous.
In Cyprus, the BOC shares closed unchanged at CYP 2.29 on 162.400 shares volume for a value of CYP 373,000, which made up one-third of the total volume transacted on the CSE on Tuesday and amounting to CYP 919,317 on 823 trades, according to AGFN, the data provider.
Laiki also closed unchanged at CYP 1.65 on 91,000 shares volume with market attention turning to the Board meeting scheduled on September 29 to decide on the future capital needs of the bank.
Hellenic Bank however, fell 1.8% at 55 cent. The CSE Main/Parallel index ended 0.10% lower at 1453.38 points.
