- Small gains for BOC and CPB

The CSE general index for the fifth
consecutive session and mainly pressured by the Bank of Cyprus and the Popular Bank that concentrated more than 1/3 of the total volume, reversed an its early losses into a closing gain of 0.4% and 83.8 points.

FTSE20 was also a gainer, up 0.6% to 318.8 points.

Trading activity was particularly low today reaching CYP 426 thousand. Specifically, the Bank of Cyprus attracted considerable investors' interest (20.7%) closing at CYP 1.15 and +0.9% or 1 cent, its highest closing over the last trading days( last seen on October 4) . Similarly, the Popular Bank with 13.4% of the total volume inched up 1% or 1 cent to CYP 1.06. Both stocks managed to recover within the last minutes of the session.

The Hellenic Bank (7.5% of the turnover) remained unchanged at 70 cents, the Bank of Cyprus warrants (7.3% of the turnover) slid 0.6% to 15.9 cents, while Lanitis Bros and Vasiliko Cement Works (5.7% of the turnover each) closed at 16.9 and 98 cents respectively. LB reported losses of 0.6%, while VCW gained 1%.

In the meanwhile, the CSE Council decided to suspend GLC's stocks for today, as "investors are not yet well informed about facts following the arrest of company's president, Lykourgos Kyprianou".

Overall, 29 securities went up, 37 fell and 21 remained unchanged.