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Greek stocks start lower, blue chips outperform

ATHENS, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Greek shares opened lower on Wednesday with mid- and small-cap stocks dropping faster while blue chips were holding their ground. Brokers said there was poor sentiment and low buying interest.

The Athens stock exchange's general share index .ATG was losing 1.20 percent or 62.30 points to 5,127.87 from Tuesday's 5,190.17 close after 25 minutes of trading.

The bourse's FTSE/ASE-20 blue chip index .ATF was off 0.78 percent or 21.14 points to 2,672.80 while the FTSE/ASE-Mid 40 index .ATF40 of mid-cap shares was dropping 2.25 percent or 21.40 points to 929.46.

Banks and industrials were around one percent weaker while small-caps and construction were off 2.5 percent.

"The market has yet to escape the climate of uncertainty and nervousness witnessed the last couple of months, with the issue of early elections still interfering with market prospects," said Grigoris Karayannopoulos, equity analyst at Ergo Securities.

With no fresh money coming into the market, trading conditions were expected to remain volatile, reducing the scope for a sustained recovery in prices.

"Investment strategy should be oriented towards fundamentals and long-term plays again as the economy adjusts to the post-EMU entry era," said Karayannopoulos. Other brokers said the current situation was a good opportunity to build positions in blue chips with good business prospects. They expected a technical reaction on the upside as early as this week.

OTE Telecom OTEr.AT approved another tariff reduction in long-term and international rates, following an adjustmnent of charges for fixed and mobile telephony interconnection which is expected to offset any loss of revenues from the tariff cuts.

Bank of Greece left its key rate for 14-day deposits unchanged at 10.75 percent in its regular weekly money market operation on Wednesday, in line with market expectations.

In their trade debut, ETBA Bank ETBr.AT and Radio Korasidis Telecom RKT.AT were trading above their listing prices of 3,000 and 6,500 drachmas, respectively. Radio Korasidis Telecom was gaining an impressive 300 percent.

Losers were leading gainers 245 to 58 with six stocks unchanged on 309 traded.

Turnover was 53.4 billion drachmas on volume of 8.8 million shares.