Corinth Pipeworks

The European Investment Bank agreed on Thursday a 110 million euros ($121 million) loan for the construction of a 182-km gas pipeline linking Bulgaria with Greece that will end Sofia's complete dependence on Russian gas and help diversify supplies in southeastern Europe.

A US anti-dumping investigation targeting Greek pipemaker Corinth Pipeworks could affect results for its Belgian parent Cenergy Holdings from 2019, one of the Brussels-listed company's co-chief executives said on Thursday.

Greek-owned Belgium-based Cenergy Holdings began trading on the Euronext Brussels market (Compartment C) and Athens Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

With an initial reference price set at 0.61 euros per share, Cenergy Holdings had a total market capitalization of 116 million euros.

Seeing the growing global demand not only for underground and underwater cables but also for natural gas pipelines, Viohalco is moving ahead with the absorption through a merger of its two listed subsidiaries Hellenic Cables and Corinth Pipeworks from another subsidiary, Belgium-based Cenergy Holdings, by the end of the year.

The benchmark’s seven-session rising streak came to an end at the Athens bourse on Thursday, as the news of Alpha Bank’s better-than-expected first-quarter results was tempered by the departure of the lender’s head, Yiannis Costopoulos.

Banks played the leading role in another bourse session as their gains buoyed the benchmark and the blue chip index higher, while the mid-cap slide resulted in declining stocks outnumbering those that rose on Wednesday.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,119.30 points, adding 1.56 percent to Tuesday’s 1,119.30 points.

Greek stocks staged an impressive rebound on Tuesday, with the Athens benchmark adding almost 5 percent and all blue chips securing healthy gains on the day that more than 1.136 billion new National Bank shares were introduced.

A late rally by blue chips including Piraeus and National offset the losses that the Athens bourse benchmark had been showing up to about half an hour before the end of Thursday's trading, with the rise in international markets also serving to assist in the recovery.