The CSE general index closed slightly higher on Monday, reaching 108.9 points and +0.3 per cent, ahead of the National Council convention presided by the Cyprus President, Glafkos Klerides. Cyprus’ political parties are expected to submit their views over the peace plan proposed by the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, as a basis for further negotiations.

On the other hand, FTSE20 finished 0.03 per cent lower at 430.5 points.

Today’s trading volume totaled only CYP 2.3 million, while the Bank of Cyprus warrants were ranked as the most actively traded stock on the CSE (23.5 per cent), concentrating ¼ of the total trading volume and remaining unchanged at 62 cents. Similarly, Elma Holdings attracted a considerable investors’ interest (19.2 per cent) ending up 1.2 per cent lower at 8.6 cents. Finally, the Bank of Cyprus with 10.2 per cent of the trading volume remained unchanged at CYP 1.67.

The other volume leaders of the day were the Popular Bank and CLR Investments with 6 and 3.3 per cent of the trading volume respectively. Specifically, CPB soared 0.8 per cent or 1 cent to CYP 1.35, while CLL fell 0.8 per cent to 12.3 cents. The Hellenic Bank with 3.2 per cent of the daily turnover lost 2.3 per cent to close at 85 cents.

As far as the financial sector is concerned, SAFS and Sharelink with 2 and 1.7 per cent of the total volume recorded losses of 1.6 and 0.8 per cent closing at 12.3 and 12.9 cents respectively. On the contrary, Marketrends with 1.4 of the daily volume gained 1.9 per cent to reach 5.3 cents.

In the “Other companies” sector, Louis absorbed 3.2 per cent of the turnover and remained unchanged at 19.3 cents, while Hadjiioannou Farm with 2.6 per cent of the volume, traded 2.2 per cent lower at 13.2 cents.

Overall, 55 securities went up, 46 fell and 23 remained unchanged.