BOC hits 1.99 in Greece

A sharp rally in Bank of Cyprus shares trading in Greece on Wednesday is expected to push the CSE higher when trading starts on Thursday as the local market rushes to close the widening gap between the two exchanges.

BOC shares closed 1.75% higher on Wednesday at a new all-time closing high of EUR 3.48 or CYP 1.994 on a sharp rise in volume, with 1.96 mln shares changing hands on EUR 6.73 mln or CYP 3.8 mln.

The rally on BOC bucked the declining trend on the Greek market where the ASE All-Share index closed 1.42% lower at 3231.49 points. The volume on BOC Greece was also six times the total volume transacted on the CSE on Wednesday, which amounted to CYP 604.000.

BOC shares meanwhile closed 0.5% higher at CYP 1.94 on the CSE on Wednesday on 124.000 shares volume. The mild increase was instrumental in lifting the FTSE/CySE 20 index to close at 424.06 while the CSE Main/Parallel index closed unchanged at 1261.81, just below its all time record of 1269.22 points.

With the gap between traded price of BOC in Greece and Cyprus widening to 5 cents, analysts expect the CSE to trade higher when trading resumes on Thursday, possibly trading above the all time high of 1.95 touched earlier this year in February. The technical charts prepared by the Financial Mirror suggest that a closing break above 1.95 will open the way for an advance towards the next chart objective of 2.02.

BOC meanwhile will be reporting its first half results on Friday afternoon with a Financial Mirror poll of analysts forecasting the Bank reporting a 80% increase in first half profits to CYP 29.3 mln from CYP 16 mln in the same period a year ago.