Fourlis Holdings

The benchmark of the Greek bourse came off last Friday's five-year highs on Monday as the market appeared to be keeping some cash aside for the upcoming 15-year Greek government bond issue. International pressure on stocks from the Chinese coronavirus played a part too, while the Greek economy's upgrade by Fitch had already been priced in last week.

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 geopolitical situation in the Middle East took a toll on global markets on Friday, and the Greek bourse was no exception. The main index at Athinon Avenue contained its losses at the end of the session, coming off a decline of more than 2.2 percent over the course of the day.

Stocks suffered a day of losses at the Athens Stock Exchange on Friday, with just a handful of sessions left till the end of the year for traders to complete their window dressing, but the benchmark didn't lose all its weekly gains, posting an increase of 0.11 percent compared to the previous Friday.

Imported concerns about the US-Chinese trade negotiations weighed on the Greek stock market on Wednesday, on the back of the release of Alpha Bank's third-quarter results on Tuesday and ahead of Thursday's results by National and Eurobank.

Blue chips got off to a good start on Monday morning in Athens, but the bulk of those gains had evaporated by the end of trade and the majority of stocks ended up in negative territory.

The Greek stock market appeared unaffected on Monday by the growth momentum observed by its international peers, and recorded a small decline on fairly low turnover. The likely reason was the decision by DBRS Morningstar last Friday not to upgrade Greece's rating, opting instead to upgrade only the country's outlook to "positive."

Unlike most of its eurozone counterparts, which appeared particularly nervous due to the raging international trade wars, Athinon Avenue demonstrated resilience on Friday, again edging higher, although this time turnover was in line with the weather in Athens, reminiscent of the dog days of summer. This resilience was also reflected in Greek bond yields, which dived to new historic lows.

The Greek bourse had another mixed day on Tuesday, with the market awaiting feedback from Brussels regarding the draft budget Athens has submitted, but in the end all indexes closed in the black thanks to a number of stocks posting firm gains.

The stock market's positive reaction to the European Commission's approval of the state's bad-loan reduction plan boosted bank stocks and helped the benchmark climb further during trading on Thursday at Athinon Avenue.