Eurobank

Over the past year, the "big four" Greek banks - Alpha, Eurobank, National and Piraeus - have repaid €31.1 billion of the €50.9 billion they had drawn from the Eurosystem, that is, the European Central Bank and the central banks of the 20 eurozone countries, in the form of loans at favorable interest rates.

A favorable climate in European markets and investor interest in banks and several blue chips helped the Athens Stock Exchange return to the 1,300-point level on Tuesday.

Despite some selling towards the end, the general index gained 1.18% to close at 1,300.47 points on turnover of €92.9 million. Blue chips gained 1.34%, mid-caps 0.96% and banks 1.77%.

The aggressive selling of banks and other blue chips initially led the Athens stock market to lose as much as 1.8%. In the end, the general index ended up at 1,278.87 points, limiting its losses to 0.62%.

Blue chips lost 0.64%, mid-caps 0.50% and banks 1.19%, after being down as much as 3%.

Shareholders of troubled passenger shipping company ANEK have benefited greatly over the past year from the plans by Attica, Greece's largest passenger shipper, to take over the company. 

The "big four" Greek banks - Alpha, Eurobank, National and Piraeus - posted impressive first-half results, analysts say, focusing on their strong profitability and its main underlying cause, interest and commission fees, but also the quality of their assets and their liquidity, which led all to adjust their end-year goals upward.

Three of the four major banks - Eurobank, National and Piraeus - that have published first-half results - Alpha Bank will do so this week - have declared income from interest above 3 billion euros, well up from the €1.8 billion recorded in the first half of 2022. 

The Athens Stock Exchange posted mild gains on low turnover Friday without venturing into negative territory. However, it ended lower for the week for a second consecutive time.

The general index closed at 1,319.52 points, a gain of 0.40%, on turnover of €76.1 million. Blue chips rose 0.41%, mid-caps 1.55% and banks 1.53%.

Greek banks comfortably passed the capital adequacy stress tests conducted by the European Banking Authority (EBA), the latter announced on Friday.

Notably, in the adverse scenario for 2025, National Bank shows a CET1 of 14.5%, Eurobank 12.2%, Piraeus Bank 9.1% and Alpha Bank 8.9%.

Traders cashed in some of the week's gains on Friday ahead of the announcement of the first-half results by the systemic banks that should shape the new week. The day's decline reversed the weekly gains into losses, while the market had already priced in the favorable stress test results of the systemic banks, announced after the conclusion of the session.

Salaries last year stood at 83.6% of the level they were at before the crisis, in 2009, while at prices without the inflation effect they were at just 71.3%, according to ELSTAT data processed by Eurobank and presented in its weekly bulletin.

This practically means that in the last 13 years purchasing power per employee has decreased by almost 30%.