BOC pressures index lower

Bank of Cyprus shares continued their down move, closing 3.24% lower on Wednesday at CYP 2.39, following Tuesday’s 2.4% decline, bringing their weekly losses to 5.5% as investors rushed to sell their shares in order to raise money to participate in the forthcoming rights issue.

BOC will list a total of 467.413.395 rights, which open trading from November 22 and last until December 5, while subscription to the issue is open from Dec. 13-19 in Cyprus and from Nov. 22- Dec. 19 in Greece.

The exercise price has been fixed at CYP 1.40 and the conversion rate is 1 share for every 6 rights.

Brokers told the Financial Mirror that the rights would open trading at 16.5 based on Wednesday’s close of CYP 2.39.

In Greece, the Bank’s shares fell 0.92% to EUR 4.30 or CYP 2.46 at a time when Sophocleous was hovering close to its record high for the year.

Considering that only 40% of the 53.000 or so shareholders of BOC in Cyprus are reported to have opened CSE Trading Accounts, the majority will not be in a position to trade their rights.

In other trading, Laiki Bank shares closed 1.76% lower at CYP 1.67, while Hellenic Bank was unchanged at 57 cent. Total volume on the CSE on Wednesday amounted to CYP 1.34 mln, with the GENX ending at 102.05 while the Main/Parallel index ended at 1565.89 points.