Ellaktor

Developments in the banking sector, mainly regarding nonperforming loans, gave bank stocks at Athinon Avenue a significant boost on Tuesday as buyers made a comeback, bolstering the bourse benchmark in the process and taking daily turnover back above the 50-million-euro level.

Greek stocks retained on Monday their southbound course set last week, with the benchmark losing just over 1 percent and trading volume remaining low, following the warning by Moody's that the global economy appears headed toward a slowdown.

As daily turnover at Athinon Avenue fell to its lowest in a month on Friday, stocks reverted to a downward course, partly due to the absence of any changes in the MSCI Greece index as expected on Thursday, along with the rise in Greek bond yields.

Bank stocks staged a full recovery on Thursday to take the benchmark higher for the first time this month, in line with the rise recorded in international markets. The credit sector closed near the day's high, although turnover was lower than in previous days.

The Greek stock market has now chalked up four declining sessions out of four so far in November, only on Wednesday the closing auctions failed to rein in the losses incurred by the benchmark. The banks index took quite a hit, tumbling almost 5 percent.

The closing auctions once again determined the benchmark result after another mixed session at Athinon Avenue on Wednesday. At the end of the day the main index continued its quiet advance, possibly thanks to the positive outcome of the T-bill auction too, although turnover appears to be losing steam.

The Greek bourse benchmark is steadily approaching the 900-point mark after its advance on Tuesday on considerably increased turnover, mainly thanks to the further decline of Greek bond yields ahead of anticipated credit rating upgrades.

The banks index at Athinon Avenue enjoyed a second consecutive day of gains in excess of 4 percent on Friday, building not only on the advance of the Heracles plan for the securitization of bad loans, but also on the upward momentum observed in foreign stock markets. That also led to the benchmark attaining growth just shy of 2 percent.

The stock market's positive reaction to the European Commission's approval of the state's bad-loan reduction plan boosted bank stocks and helped the benchmark climb further during trading on Thursday at Athinon Avenue.

The main index of the Greek stock market continued to slide for a fourth consecutive day on Thursday, though not as dramatically as Wednesday's 3 percent drop. The morning's brief reaction to three days of losses gave way to another selling spree later in the day, leading the benchmark close to the 820-point mark.