HSBC places ‘overweight’ tag on Athens Exchange

Despite the strong rally by Greek stocks since the start of the year, HSBC estimates the Athens Exchange still has great potential to climb further. On Tuesday the British bank upgraded its recommendation for the local market from neutral to overweight, stressing that Greece's macroeconomic prospects have improved considerably after the elections, with a positive impact on stocks.

Within two days HSBC has published two very positive reports on Greece (after Monday's "buy" recommendation for all Greek banks), which market sources view as a very favorable signal to investors, combined with the fact that the Greek bourse has finally reappeared on an investment firm's radar after a very long time.

HSBC notes that several factors related to Greek stocks, such as valuations, profits and liquidity, constitute positive arguments in favor of the local stock market.