CSE seen trading higher

…after big block trades on BOC

The CSE is seen trading higher on Friday on the back of a sharp rally in Bank of Cyprus Pcl shares in Greece on Thursday after big block trades raised expectations that Piraeus Bank had resumed purchasing BOC shares.

BOC shares in Greece closed Thursday at EUR 7.38 or CYP 4.24 on 1.7 mln shares volume, of which 479.000 shares concerned 4 big block trades of 140k, 139k, 100k and 100k shares transacted at EUR 7.18, 7.18, 7.20 and 7.24 per share respectively according to Financial Mirror calculations.

The fact that the big block trades were made above EUR 7.20 helped break a key resistance level, opening the way for an attempt on the next resistance level of EUR 7.40.

The rally in Greece comes at a contrast to the muted trading action on BOC shares on Thursday on the CSE, which while up on the day at CYP 4.08, but was well down from an intra-day high of CYP 4.15.

BOC shares were the most active on the CSE on CYP 1.8 mln volume, followed by Hellenic Bank shares unchanged at CYP 1.12 and Laiki Bank shares, down 0.39% at CYP 2.57.

The CSE GENX ended 1.25% higher at 2587.02 points on total volume of CYP 3.6 mln.