Eurobank

Many investors opted to sit out Thursday's trading session at Athinon Avenue ahead of Friday night's verdict by Fitch on Greece's rating and outlook, with sellers putting an end to the benchmark's seven-session rising streak.

Despite the slight drop of the banks index on Wednesday, the benchmark and the majority of stocks on the Greek bourse continued their rise, led by mid-caps, albeit at a slower pace than in previous days. This has taken the main index to another five-year record high after the seventh straight day of gains.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market continued its course toward the 1,000-point mark with a sixth consecutive session of moderate gains on Tuesday, largely thanks to the closing auctions, which offset all the morning losses and split stocks down the middle between winners and losers.

State privatizations fund TAIPED has proclaimed an international tender for the utilization of a property of 165,460.40 square meters at the former working site supporting the construction of the Rio-Antirrio bridge.

The fifth consecutive session of moderate growth for the Greek bourse saw the benchmark advance to a new five-year high, as it climbed to levels unseen since December 2014.

Friday's bourse session was much like Thursday's, with a mild increase for the majority of stocks as the benchmark climbed to levels unseen since February 2015. This sedate growth is slowly convincing observers that the main index may well capture the 1,000-point level in the coming months.

The Greek bourse saw another day of mild gains on Thursday despite the drop in buyers' interest. Rising stocks outnumbered the losers two-to-one and the benchmark inched higher once again, shaking off the impact of the OPAP dividend cut.

The positive views on the Greek economy and its banks by various foreign firms, including rating agency DBRS Morningstar, continue to feed traders' buying interest, which is also trickling down to mid- and small-caps. This carried the benchmark through to another day of growth on Wednesday, on higher trading volume too thanks to a number of packages that changed hands.

The acquisition of FPS by Italian group doValue will serve as a springboard for the latter's expansion in the wider Southeastern Europe region according to its CEO Andrea Mangoni.

In an interview with Kathimerini, Mangoni says that the Italian group's aim is to become the leading servicer of nonperforming exposures in Greece ahead of the emergence of the secondary NPE market.

The Greek bourse on Tuesday recovered the ground it had lost on Monday but for the time being it appears unable to secure the boost required to reach the psychologically important level of 1,000 points. Turnover also improved.