BOC well bid ahead of results

Bank of Cyprus shares closed well bid on the CSE ahead of the announcement of the preliminary results Monday afternoon, but a wave of profit taking in Greece, forced the share price lower, closing the gap between the two exchanges.

Bank of Cyprus closed at a fresh record of CYP 3.80 on Monday on the CSE, up 1.88% on the day on CYP 3.2 mln volume bringing its total gains since the start of the year at 45% and was instrumental in pulling the GENX to a fresh closing high for the year.

A wave of profit taking however, on the ASE forced the share price of the Bank down 2.92% on Monday by 3.30pm to EUR 6.64 or CYP 3.81 on 1.9 mln shares volume for a value of EUR 12.7 mln or CYP 7.3 mln ahead of the announcement of the preliminary 2005 results Monday afternoon.

Most analysts expect BOC to report net profits of CYP 70 mln for 2005.

The brisk activity on the BOC shares helped push total volume on the CSE to CYP 5.65 mln with the GENX closing at 2412.18, up 1.37% on the day and at levels not seen in five years. Since the start of the year, the GENX is up 41.5%.

Laiki Bank was the second most active, up 0.76% on the day at CYP 2.65 on CYP 758k volume, followed by Hellenic Bank, unchanged at 87 cent on CYP 650k volume. Next was LUI, down 0.72% at 27.7 cent, followed by Lanitis Bros. which managed to absorb another CYP 112k worth of shares at the bid price of 17.2 cent made by 3E.

CLL was the fifth most active on CYP 107k volume, closing up 3.57% at 5.8 cent, followed by MEGA, up 14.8% at 6.2 cent, SFS, unchanged at 9.6 cent and Demetra Inv., down 0.67% at 29.8 cent.