BOC recovers in Greece

…CSE seen following higher

Bank of Cyprus shares trading in Greece staged a spectacular rally Tuesday, in tandem with a major recovery witnessed on most European markets, ASE included, which will hopefully pull the CSE higher when trading starts on Wednesday.

BOC shares, which in intra-day trading had dipped to a low of EUR 6.10 or CYP 3.50, rallied strongly in the afternoon to end at EUR 7.02 or CYP 4.04 for a daily gain of 4.78% in brisk trade as 5.7 mln shares changed hands for a value of EUR 38.6 mln or CYP 22.2 mln.

The EUR 6 level is seen as the near term bottom for the BOC shares considering that a couple of months ago, when BOC shares had dived 10% in one day, they had recovered sharply from the EUR 6 level, which was nearly tested on Tuesday and led to the spectacular 15% daily rebound.

The BOC recovery was also much better than the ASE General Index, which after a more than 15% dive in the last sessions, recovered 3.15% on Tuesday to end at 3763.92 points.

CSE nose-dive

Since the CSE closes at 13.00, it missed to benefit from the rebound in European and global markets, with the result that the GENX closed 4.72% lower at 2432.57 points, on total volume of CYP 13 mln.

BOC was the most active, ending 5% lower at CYP 3.80 on CYP 3.5 mln volume, followed by Laiki Bank, down 5.08% at CYP 2.43 on CYP 3.2 mln volume, and Hellenic Bank in third place, ending down 2.68% at CYP 1.09 on CYP 2.3 mln volume.

The Laiki rights, which made their exit on Tuesday ended 9.7% lower at CYP 1.21 on CYP 1.55 mln volume, followed by SFS Public Group, down 6.8% at 9.5 cent on CYP 195.000 volume.

Despite the 15% decline in price for BOC shares during the past week, the BOC shares at the closing price of CYP 3.80 are still 45% ahead since the beginning of the year, making them one of the best investment instruments available in the market.