The mood for profit taking may have been limited during today's session on the Athens Stock Exchange, but the tremors caused in the international markets after the macro data announced in the US landed the Greek market at 1,435 points.

In particular, the General Index moved steadily downward, and with the liquidations escalating towards the end, it ended the trading session down 0.93% at 1,435.19 points, essentially at the daily lows.

The banking index led the losses with a 1.16% drop to 1,249.87 points, the FTSE fell 0.95% to 3,499.66 points, as did the mid-cap FTSEM, which closed at 2,292.1 points down -0.98%.

The market had indicated since yesterday's close that it would move on the basis of locking in some of the significant gains of the recent mini-rally, during which it covered a distance of more than 100 points (from 1,357.3pc at the intraday low on 16/4 to 1. 462.68 to the intraday high yesterday) as it did, but the picture would probably have been better if the US GDP data had not curbed some buying moves that had begun around mid-day.

Among the day's few savers were Alpha (8.1m) and Jumbo (3m), both with marginal gains of 0.25% and 0.56%, respectively.

Piraeus topped the turnover for yet another day with 34.7 million (15.7 million in packages) but fell 1.98% to 3.921 euros, Eurobank with 22.6 million lost 1.34% to 1.99 euros, and NBG with 20.4 million slipped to 7.56 euros with -1.25%.

In the same pattern as in the last few days, Mytilineos entered "wedged" among the banks in the top 5 turnover positions, today in 4th with 12.7 million, finishing at 37.72 euros with -1.5%, with the market showing that it had discounted both the strong Q1 figures presented before the opening, with a 10% increase in profitability and a 12% increase in EBIDTA, but also the announcement of a dual listing of the group in London.

The biggest pressures in the high-cap sector were exerted on Viohalco (967k) with -3.14%, Sarantis (1m) with -2.5%, Motor Oil (2.9m) with -2.49%, Elvalhalkor (200k) with -2.36%, and Ellaktor (672k) with -2.12%.

Beyond that, with 6.4 million worth of trades, OPAP lost 1.81% to 16.28 euros, PPC with 3.2 million had reached up to 11.55 euros (+1.67%) but eventually closed at 11.3 euros with -0.53%, and GEK Terna with 1.6 million lost 1.09% to 16.26 euros.

In the mid-cap sector, only Profile survived with +2.06% at EUR 4.46 (EUR 434k), while PPA (EUR 65k) lost 2.6%, Intralot (EUR 895k) closed down -1.2%, and Intrakat (EUR 805k) closed down -0.7%.

In the lower strata, EKTER moved impressively, both in terms of return (+4.5% at EUR 4.56 and in terms of turnover with EUR 767 thousand).