Eurobank

The upcoming rebalancing of the MSCI Greek stock indexes and profit taking after five consecutive days of gains led to losses at Athinon Avenue on Friday, with a huge daily turnover. Notably 70% of trading volume took placing during the closing auctions. The benchmark of the Athens stock market ended May with a monthly advance of 3.87%, though banks lost 2.94%.

Greece's third-largest lender Eurobank more than doubled its first-quarter net profit on the back of lower provisions for impaired loans and higher fee and commission income, it said on Friday.

Eurobank, which is 2.4% owned by the country's HFSF bank rescue fund, reported net earnings of 57 million euros ($63.4 million), up from 22 million euros in last year's first quarter.

There is strong competition among banks for participation in the Guarantee Fund for the provision of state-subsidized liquidity to Greek enterprises, with 14 lenders expressing an interest in response to the invitation published by the Hellenic Development Bank.

The European Commission announcements concerning grants and loans for member-states adding up to 750 million euros gave Greek stocks a major boost on Wednesday, in line with most other European bourses. The fourth consecutive day of gains on the highest turnover of the last two-and-a-half months took the benchmark over 8.5% higher compared to last Thursday's closing.

Eurobank has become the first Greek lender to make use of the government's Hercules scheme to reduce bad loans after gaining finance ministry approval for state guarantees on senior tranches of its Cairo I and II debt securitisations, officials at the bank said on Wednesday.

Despite the hour-long interruption to Tuesday's trading session due to a technical failure, bank stocks staged an impressive rebound of more than 12%, taking the benchmark at Athinon Avenue to fresh gains. The international climate continues to improve as hopes for a coronavirus vaccine keep growing, helping turnover in the local market to recover.

On a day when Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange remained closed, the Greek bourse secured a rather satisfactory turnover of almost 50 million euros on Monday, with traders opting to position themselves ahead of this Friday's upcoming index rebalancing. Leading the benchmark to strong gains were bank stocks, which were oversold in previous sessions.

The Greek securities markets are showing a shift from stocks to bonds, as confidence in the state's solvency is growing while the private sector is facing multiple problems. On the same day the benchmark of Athinon Avenue suffered minor losses and banks dipped to new lows, the Greek 10-year bond continued its rally, with its yield dropping to 1.73% on Thursday.

The majority of stock prices recovered from early lows on Wednesday to end the session with gains. However, banks failed to stage a recovery, as buyers appeared more interested in specific blue chips outside the credit sector, such as energy stocks. 

Bank stocks led the Greek bourse lower on Tuesday, in line with most European markets, as traders chose to cash in the gains recorded in the last couple of sessions at Athinon Avenue. The market is now awaiting Wednesday's new package of measures aimed at restarting the economy.