Profit taking reverses rally of prices in ASE

Greek stocks ended lower on Monday as a wave of profit taking late at the session reversed a multi-day advance of prices to new 2003 highs on the Athens Stock Exchange. The general index fell 0.77 percent to end at 2,292.80 points, with turnover a high 195.2 million euros. The Textile, Holdings and Publication sectors suffered the heaviest percentage losses of the day (2.63 percent, 2.59 percent and 2.53 percent, respectively), while the Food-Beverage (3.18 percent), Investment (2.83 percent) and Bank (1.38 percent) sectors scored the biggest percentage gains. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks eased 0.27 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index fell 0.60 percent and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index dropped 1.87 percent. Broadly, decliners led advancers by 249 to 89 with another 28 issues unchanged.