Bank of Cyprus shares close above EUR 12 in Greece

The shares of the three banks involved in the tit-for-tat merger, counter-merger and takeover attempts, Piraeus, Bank of Cyprus and Marfin Popular Bank rallied higher on Thursday as investors warmed up to all three stocks.

Bank of Cyprus shares hit a new record high of EUR 12.06 on the ATHEX on Thursday, while on the CSE, the shares closed at an all-time record of EUR 11.92 for a 4% daily gain.

Piraeus also surged higher to a new record of EUR 26.64 per share while the shares of Marfin Popular Bank were well bid at EUR 8.50 on the ATHEX and 8.40 on the CSE.

The market cap of Piraeus surged beyond EUR 7 bln mark to EUR 7.07 bln, the market value of Bank of Cyprus surged to a new record of EUR 6.6 bln while the cap of Marfin Popular Bank reached EUR 6.45 bln.

Bank of Cyprus was the most active on the CSE on total share volume of EUR 10.08 mln, Marfin Popular was next on EUR 7.33 mln volume, followed by Hellenic Bank, up 4% at EUR 3.64 on total volume of EUR 1.89 mln. The fourth most active on the CSE was Ocean Tankers, up 15.5% to a new record close of EUR 1.04 on EUR 1.2 mln volume.

The CSE GENX closed 4.22% higher at a new record high of 4458.47 points on total volume of EUR 25 mln.