Hellenic Bank races to record close

..insurers well bid on takeover talk

 

Hellenic Bank Pcl (HB) shares raced to a new record closing high of EUR 4.18 as institutional investors continued to shift to the stock amid increasing prospects that the share price will continue higher and reach the EUR 5 target price.

In brisk trading on Tuesday, HB shares were the most active on EUR 4.9 mln volume, gaining 2.45% on the day and bringing its gains since the start of the year to 25.9% making it the best performing among the major bank titles on the CSE.

The CSE General Index, which ended at 4736.40 points on EUR 16.3 mln volume saw trading disrupted for about 45 minutes following technical problems experienced by the dealing system of the Athens Stock Exchange. Since the start of the year, the CSE General Index is up 21.4%.

Bank of Cyprus Pcl (BOCY) was the second most active, closing at EUR 12.84, taking its year-to-date gains to 24.4%, while Marfin Popular Bank ended at EUR 8.56 with most attention centered on Marfin Investment Group, which is in the process of completing its EUR 5.19 bln rights issue.

Insurance stocks were particularly active with Minerva, Cosmos and Atlantic all racing higher amid speculation that any of the three stocks will become the subject of a bid by a banking institution.

The satellite shares of Cyprus Cement, namely CCCT and CCCH as well as K&G Complex were among the best movers of the day.