Limited trading and lack of buying interest were the picture today in the Athens market that followed the international downward trend, with Coca-Cola and OPAP making sure that the retreat was kept to a minimum.

Specifically, the General Index moved into negative territory shortly after the opening and remained there until the end of trading, which found it at 1,446.92 points with a small 0.17% drop, having moved away from the daily lows (1,438.62 points).

Turnover was also "anemic" today at only 91.22 million, of which 9.5 million in 13 packages (3 in OTE for 1.5 million, 3 in ETE for 1.39 million, 3 in Profile for 1.6 million, and 1 in Jumbo for 2 million) with a trading volume of 17.67 million units.

The banking index led the decline with a loss of 0.4% to 1,283.07 points, the FTSE fell 0.2% to 3,523.65 points, as did the mid-cap FTSEM, which closed at 2,300.64 points down -0.19%.

The session was essentially a carbon copy of yesterday's, with sellers taking an early lead, buyers on 'holiday' and losses widening as the hour wore on but narrowing noticeably at the close.

More broadly, to some extent, the market appears to be trying to buy time in recent days until at least the European indices, which continue negative for a fourth session today, break out of their downward spiral, with investors in L.A. meanwhile consolidating some of the gains from the strong first 15 days of July.

In any case, the nearby 1,440 support worked today, as when the GC retreated below this level, immediate buying came out and eventually moved away from the daily lows, but with trading firmly at low levels, there are doubts about the defensive reserves currently available to the Athens L.

Internationally, the bearish sentiment is being driven by losses in the shares of microchip technology giants in the wake of reports that the US is initiating plans to restrict exports to China.

The picture on the board

As mentioned above, the losses of the DG were limited by the 1.63% jump of the "heavy" Coca-Cola (521 thousand euros) to 32.52 euros, helped by OPAP (4.9 million euros) to 15.8 euros (+1.28%).

In banks, the picture was mixed, with Piraeus (10 million) gaining +0.53% to 3.81 euros, completing its fifth bullish session.

Eurobank (7.1mn) was essentially unchanged (-0.05%) at 2.119 euros, Ethniki, with the highest turnover of the day (11.6mn), retreated to 7.948 euros with -0.65%; and Alpha (6mn) was at 1.658 euros with -1.6%.

In the sellers' crosshairs were Aegean (581k) with -2.24% at 11.81 euros and Sarantis (122k) with -2.63% at 11.1 euros.

Metlen (5 m) was also under pressure with -1.06% at 35.4 euros, Motor Oil (4.5 m) with -1.05% at 22.56 euros, Viochalco (791 m) with -1.17% at 5.9 euros, and Autohellas (103 m) with -1.3% at 11.62 euros.

In the lower layers, Profile turned over 1.8 million euros with three packages worth a total of 1.61 million changing hands at 5.38 euros, but lost 1.49% to 5.3 euros. Dimand (151k) jumped 4% to 9 euros and Kri Kri (149k) gained 1.3%.