ATHEX: Banks record dramatic weekly drop

The rising sequence of 11 weeks came to an emphatic end on Friday, with the Greek bourse benchmark this week losing a significant portion of the ground gained over the last month. This was topped by a strong decline on the day, amounting to almost 2.5 percentage points, driven by international concern over banks, which also affected the local credit sector's prospects.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,056.25 points, shedding 2.49% from Thursday's 1,083.22 points. On a weekly basis it conceded 5.24%. The banks index, which on Friday dropped 5.61%, has lost 13.57% in a week.

The large-cap FTSE-25 index contracted 2.85% on the day to end at 2,564.24 points.

Alpha sank 6.18%, National gave up 5.94%, Eurobank contracted 5.32%, Piraeus lost 4.62% and Sarantis fell 4.01%, just as OPAP added 1.52% and Aegean Airlines improved 0.28%%.

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