GEK Terna

Surprise entries by two Czech companies and four Greek enterprises - one of them in cooperation with a Chinese group - make up the list of candidate buyers who have expressed a non-binding interest in the lignite-powered units of Public Power Corporation in Florina and Megalopoli.

The Athens bourse spent almost the entire session on Wednesday showing benchmark and blue-chip gains, only for sellers to reverse the trend in the closing auctions, wiping out the advances. Nevertheless, growing stocks outnumbered decliners.

Unfazed by the domestic turmoil over the controversial agreement between Athens and Skopje and the no-confidence motion against the government, investors sent local stocks higher for a third day on Thursday, with turnover matching Wednesday's.

The country's biggest construction groups are positioning themselves ahead of the restructuring of the profitable market of project concession, concerning major roadworks and infrastructure such as highways and bridges.

Fresh concerns over Italy weighed on most European stock markets on Wednesday, leading to losses of over 1 percent for the benchmark at Athinon Avenue, on particularly low turnover. The ongoing saga concerning Folli Follie is not helping the local market at all, and a prosecutor launched an investigation into the case on Wednesday.

The sealing of the staff-level agreement between Athens and its creditors on Saturday helped bring an end to the Greek stock market's five-session losing streak on Monday. The benchmark started the new week with minor gains, although losing stocks outnumbered those that headed north.

Greece on Wednesday prequalified seven investment groups to take part in the second phase of a tender for the administration of the Egnatia Odos highway, privatization agency TAIPED said.

Banks and Folli Follie inflicted fresh losses on the main index at the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) on Tuesday as the pressure continued on Greek bond prices and on international markets, taking the benchmark below the 800-point mark.

The Greek stock market had a mixed session on reduced turnover on Wednesday, as the losses posted by bank stocks were more or less offset by gains registered by construction and industrial blue chips, among others.

For the first time in 2018 the Greek bourse benchmark chalked up five consecutive days of growth, as Wednesday's roller coaster of a session ended with blue chip buyers on top again, lured mainly by bank stocks, which continued to rally. However, the majority of stocks ended the day in the red.