Eurobank

Bank stocks continued their decline on Thursday, but that was not enough to force more losses on the Athens bourse benchmark, which gained more than 1 percent thanks to the closing auctions in a rather indifferent market, as the constantly low trading volume reveals.

International rumors about a Greek eurozone exit and the bleak outlook of the country?s negotiations with its creditors sent local stocks even lower on Wednesday, with banks again bearing the brunt of the selling pressure.

The Greek bourse reopened on Tuesday after the four-day Orthodox Easter break and posted significant losses at the end of the session as the uncertainty over the negotiations between Athens and its creditors and the storm of scenarios regarding a Greek default created concern among investors regarding the future of the economy.

Moody?s said on Monday that a Brussels probe into deferred tax assets would constitute a credit negative event for Greek banks, as they may be deemed to have received state subsidies through a system that allowed them to defer tax payments from loss-making years to profit-making ones.

The Greek bourse began the four-day recess having secured daily gains of 1.06 percent and a weekly rise of 0.61 percent, as the government asked its eurozone peers for cash while making it clear that Russia is not a solution to Greece?s financial problems. Thursday?s trading volume was the second lowest of the year.

Fitch Ratings said in a statement on Tuesday that the Greek government?s intention to create a ?bad bank? is a positive step toward achieving reform because it recognized that high volumes of nonperforming loans (NPLs) are impeding new lending.

With the omens from the negotiations in Brussels being far from positive on Tuesday, the benchmark of the Greek stock market ended the month of March with losses of 11.93 percent, while banks declined by 24.69 percent. The banks index lost 41.53 percent in the first quarter of the year.

Greece's future in the eurozone is not in question and the government will reach a deal with the country's creditors, Templeton Emerging Markets Group Chairman Mark Mobius said in an interview published by Naftemporiki daily on Tuesday.