athens exchange

The deterioration of Greece's country risk, recently reflected in the increase in sovereign bond yields after the issue of the seven-year bond on February 9, has also had a negative impact on Greek corporate bonds on the platform of the Athens Exchange.

Friday's quiet session at the local stock market served to highlight that it takes a significant fiscal development - such as Wednesday's credit rating upgrade - for buyers to emerge again and send the benchmark higher.

The surprise sovereign rating upgrade by Moody's and signs of a recovery on Wall Street boosted activity on the Greek stock market on Thursday, with buyers regaining the upper hand and trading volume posting an improvement.

The decision of the Eurogroup on Monday to put off the disbursement to Greece of the 5.7-billion-euro bailout tranche overshadowed the positive news of last Friday's credit rating upgrade by Fitch - from B- to B - at the Greek bourse on Tuesday, although the losses were contained somewhat during the closing auctions.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has argued in a report on Greek banking that the local banking sector still runs the risk of dilution, which is why the company has kept the sector's recommendation unchanged as "underperform."

Buyers have returned to the Greek bourse, bringing handsome gains for the vast majority of local stocks on Thursday, although the low trading volume suggested this was more likely a case of profit-taking than confidence in Athinon Avenue.

Greek stocks yo-yoed between gains and losses on Wednesday, with the news on US inflation weighing not only on the ATHEX but most European bourses too. The strong finish by Coca-Cola HBC kept the benchmark afloat after a days-long decline, but trading volume was notably reduced.

The despondent atmosphere prevailing on international markets continued to affect Greek stocks and sovereign bonds on Tuesday. According to observers, the latest row with Turkey also weighed on the benchmark at Athinon Avenue.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 821.85 points, shedding 0.20 percent from Monday's 823.46 points.

Morning gains gave way to afternoon losses for Greek stocks on Monday, with all the main indices ending the session near or on their day lows - even though fellow eurozone markets headed higher - while turnover was the lowest of the last 20 sessions.

Greek stocks went with the flow of international markets again on Friday, suffering fresh losses that brought the benchmark's decline over the week to more than 5 percent. It is estimated that the capitalization of local stocks has shrunk by over 3 billion euros in the last few sessions.