Bank of Cyprus Pcl shares rallied sharply in a roller-coaster day and choppy trading conditions ahead of a Board decision today widely expected to withdraw from the bid to seek control of Emporiki Bank of Greece.
After opening 4.5% up at CYP 3.90 compared to Tuesday’s close of CYP 3.73, BOC shares traded initially to 3.95/3.96, then slumped back to 3.93, after which they raced to CYP 4.00 per share once trading started in Greece, with the KYPR shares opening at 6.86 euros and then jumping above 7 euros per share.
In very volatile trade, Greece then gave direction as the share price hit 7.2 euros or the equivalent of CYP 4.14, by which time the BOC shares on the CSE had rallied to the session high of CYP 4.08.
A steep drop in the share price in Greece from 7.2 euros forced investors in Cyprus to rush and lock in their profits, forcing the BOC shares down to CYP 3.99, after which the share price rebounded to end the day at CYP 4.00 per share for a daily gain of 7.24% on about CYP 3 mln volume.
By 13.00hrs, BOC shares in Greece were trading at 7.02 euros or CYP 4.03, having recovered from the dip to 6.98 euros after the first attempt on 7.20 euros failed to break.
The 7.20 euro level is seen as crucial since it is the lower range of the price level at which Piraeus Bank was seen buying BOC shares after it passed the 5% level and started making official announcements on its trading activity.
A break of 7.2 euros is seen widening the resistance range to a minimum of 7.40 euros per share or CYP 4.25.
In other trading, Laiki Bank shares rallied 4.03% higher to end at CYP 2.58 in a range of 2.50-2.60, accounting for 22% of the total volume of CYP 5.99 mln for the whole CSE. According to Financial Mirror charts, the next resistance level on CPB shares is the 2.63/2.65 area.
Hellenic Bank followed its peers higher, adding 3.7% for the day to end at CYP 1.12 in a tight range of 1.12-1.14. Other good performers were SFS up 4.94% at 8.6c, LUI up 3.55% at 20.4c and FWW, up 2.77% at 48.3c.
The CSE GENX (Main and Parallel) ended 5.88% higher at 2555.12 points on total volume of CYP 5.99 mln.
