ATHEX: Rising streak is broken

The Greek bourse benchmark's 14-session rising streak - the first this century - came to an end on Thursday, with significant losses for the majority of stocks, although not all blue chips followed the bank stocks on their steep decline. At any rate, the benchmark demonstrated that it is not yet ready to conquer the 800-point mark.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 774.32 points, shedding 2.72% from Wednesday's 796.01 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index contracted 2.77% to close at 1,853.66 points.

The banks index slumped 8.07%, as Alpha gave up 9.29%, National conceded 8.41%, Piraeus lost 8.35% and Eurobank parted with 6.71%.

Ellaktor dropped 5.23%, but OPAP rose 1.37% and Coca-Cola HBC earned 0.87%.

In total 26 stocks posted gains, 81 reported losses and 20 remained unchanged.

Turnover amounted to €111.4 million euros, down from...