Eurobank

The European Central Bank decision to lift its 33 percent limit on euro area government bond purchases gave Greek stocks a second consecutive day of healthy gains on Thursday. The bourse saw its capitalization grow by 2.5 billion euros over those two sessions, with credit sector stocks playing a major role in that advance.

The reserved optimism of Greek epidemiologists about the course of Covid-19 in Greece over the last three days was reflected in stock prices on Tuesday, as confidence in the quickly taken, firm measures and the fiscal easing decided across the European Union have led to some relief for battered bourses, including Athinon Avenue.

Monday's session at the Greek bourse was short and sour for stocks. The start was delayed by over four hours due to technical problems in data transmission, and the benchmark suffered major losses in the three-and-a-half hours of trade (an hour's extension was granted), with banks once again enduring most of the pressure.

The decision by the European Central Bank to include Greece in an emergency bond-buying program gave Greek securities a much-needed boost on Thursday, with sovereign bond yields tumbling and stocks jumping at Athinon Avenue. Public Power Corporation closed almost at its limit-up, while banks struggled to keep up with the other blue chips.

The Greek stock market experienced another mixed session on Wednesday, with the majority of stocks heading south, led by banks, while several blue chips withstood the pressure to continue the rebound they had begun on Tuesday. The ban on short-selling until April 24 is set to contain the volatility recently observed at Athinon Avenue.

Despite the pressure on banks at the Greek bourse on Tuesday that looked as though it might drag the benchmark lower still, most of the rest of the market posted healthy gains that saw the main index come off a four-year low, on improved turnover too.

Another day, another sell-off on the Greek bourse, whose benchmark slipped below the 500-point level on Monday on reduced turnover.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 484.40 points, a new 49-month low, shedding 12.24 percent from Friday's 551.97 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index slumped 13.89 percent to 1,194.86 points.

Credit servicing firms (CSFs) licensed by Greece's central bank were servicing a total of 23.5 billion euros ($26.3 billion) of non-performing loans at the end of December, it said on Monday.

Most of the Greek bourse's morning gains had evaporated by the end of Friday's session, with the benchmark covering only a quarter of the 10.61 percent loss it had suffered on Thursday. The comparatively low turnover indicates that many sellers were taking a break and will likely return next week.

Greece's third-largest lender Eurobank raised its net profit in 2019 as provisions for impaired loans eased and said it would now be focusing on profitability.