Ellaktor

The only way was up on Thursday for most banks after Wednesday's decline, with the credit sector (although not Piraeus Bank) carrying the rest of the stock market to significant gains - albeit not as impressive as some highs recorded during the course of the session. Turnover also headed higher - another encouraging sign.

Greece's stock market matched the picture on most other eurozone bourses on Monday with gains secured on relatively thin trade. The Greek market will try to benefit from the desire of certain investors to take some calculated risks as Europe tries to emerge from the health crisis and Italy is close to forming a new government.

The Greek stock market's lowest trading volume of the last 13 sessions saw the benchmark suffer moderate losses on Thursday after three days of gains, as traders again appear reluctant to commit themselves to purchases until the picture regarding the coronavirus tempest clears.

Underperforming its European peers, Athinon Avenue was virtually flat at the end of the week's first session as it failed to catch the wave of gains observed in the rest of the eurozone, partly due to concerns about the course of the pandemic in Greece. Losing stocks narrowly edged out the gainers, but most indexes closed with slight growth.

Athinon Avenue gave up 7.36% over the month of January after another day of losses on Friday for the benchmark and the majority of stocks. The prospect of tighter restrictions and concerns over when the economy will start to recover continued to put pressure on prices.

The market's focus on the sovereign bond issue left the field wide open for sellers on the local bourse - and they took full advantage of it. Stocks suffered significant losses, again led by the bank sector. It had been expected by many that stocks were set to fall in Athens and the rest of Europe, due to rising concerns over vaccine supplies.

The stock market's reaction after three days of losses proved half-hearted on Tuesday, as the early recovery was contained later on, with most bank stocks posting losses. Some traders will have decided to save some of their liquidity for the new 10-year bond issue, which Greece announced on Tuesday halfway through the trading session.

Just like in Tuesday's session, stocks started with gains at Athinon Avenue on Thursday but eventually had to settle for losses. Despite the positive start on Wall Street, the closing auctions at the same time in Athens took the main index lower, beyond -1%, on increased turnover.

After heading south in the previous three sessions, Greek stocks in Athens reversed course on Wednesday, with most ending up in the black and the benchmark reclaiming the 800-point level it had lost on Tuesday. The expected reopening of the retail market is seen as a catalyst for some short-term gains in the coming days.

The Greek bourse began the day on an upward course on Tuesday, but as the session went on it started losing steam and eventually settled for moderate losses for the benchmark. It ended up below the 800-point mark for the first time in more than two weeks.