Eurobank

Despite the fog hanging over the negotiations between the government and the country's creditors, investors threw caution to the wind on Wednesday and drove the Greek bourse benchmark closer to the 640-point mark. The robust performance of bank stocks pointed to traders betting on a positive outcome both for the Greek bailout review and Italy's banking crisis.

All in all it was a quiet session at the Greek bourse on Tuesday, as it seems quite a few investors decided to stay away and wait for news from the Euro Working Group. Most stocks posted small losses but the benchmark rose a tad after the closing auctions.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is set to announce an agreement for a cash injection of 1 billion euros to Greece's four systemic banks that will be guaranteed by the Greek state, paving the way for a return to state-backed financing.

After Friday's unexpected gains, Greek stocks conceded some ground on Monday, with banks giving up the most. However, losses were contained significantly during the closing auctions, with Coca-Cola HBC, the market's biggest company by capitalization, posting a remarkable recovery in the last 15 minutes of trading.

The decision by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to freeze short-term measures to ease Greece's debt also froze buying interest in the local market, leading to losses for the majority of stocks on Wednesday, which may well continue into Thursday's session.

Wilbur Ross, US President-elect Donald Trump's likely pick for commerce secretary, told a Greek investment forum in New York he is looking forward to his investment in Greece finally paying dividends.

The perceived clash between the government and the International Monetary Fund and the distancing of the European Commission from the IMF's positions rattled nerves at the local stock market on Tuesday, although the resumption of talks with the creditors' representatives was a positive sign.

The Greek bourse began the week with mixed results at the end of the session as investors await the resumption of the bailout review. Stocks were split between winners and losers, but the benchmark was up at the close, having recovered all the day's losses in the closing auctions.

The drop that most Greek stocks posted on Friday after four days of growth took the main index back to where it was at Wednesday's close, though both the benchmark and the banks indices chalked up significant gains over the week, rising 4.26 percent and 9.84 percent respectively.

National Bank of Greece aims to have the binding bids for the sale of its subsidiary Ethniki Insurance within the first quarter of 2017. According to the group's commitment in its restructuring plan, the sale must take place in the first half of next year, but bank sources say the process will begin in January.