Greek shares lost their grip on earlier gains and fell in the early Thusrday afternoon on poor European market sentiment and blue chip profit taking, led down by Bank of Cyprus, The Thomson Financial reports.

The ASE general index fell 1.1 pct to 4,267.9 and blue chip index dropped 2.1 pct to 2,198.7. Mid caps lost 1.5 pct to 5,187.1 and small caps dipped 0.8 pct to 927.4.

Decliners outnumbered advancers 164 to 44 and 115 remained unchanged.

Bank of Cyprus plummeted 14.4 pct to 8.04 eur after it released full year results and a disappointing 2008-2010 business plan. Following the announcements, it was cut to 'hold' at Deutsche Bank and 'market perform' at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods with both saying that its fourth quarter results missed forecasts and cited estimate downgrades over the next few years.

A day earlier, BoC posted 2007 net profit growth of 55 percent to 485 million euros and guided for net earnings of 540 million euros for this year.

Hellenic Telecoms (OTE) slid 0.4 pct to 19.08 eur. It announced it has agreed with unions on a new voluntary retirement scheme for up to 200 eligible employees to leave within 2008.

Refiner Motor Oil was 0.8 pct lower at 14 eur after releasing full year results yesterday which were in line with consensus estimates.

Marfin Popular Bank dropped 7.4 pct to 6.42 eur eur, metals and engineering company Mytilineos fell 3.6 pct to 10.46 eur and betting technology Intralot was 3.2 pct lower at 12.58 eur, all on the negative market sentiment.