Hellenic Exchanges

The prospect of a new Attica lockdown sent the Greek bourse tumbling on Tuesday, with severe losses for banks and the majority of other stocks also heading south, erasing the gains of previous days. All but two blue chips headed lower, but the decline is seen as temporary and not structural.

The Greek bourse followed on Tuesday in the footsteps left by major foreign markets over the last couple of days, taking its benchmark just over the 760-point mark, though banks had less to do with that growth than other blue chips. Turnover saw a marked improvement too.

Athinon Avenue gave up 7.36% over the month of January after another day of losses on Friday for the benchmark and the majority of stocks. The prospect of tighter restrictions and concerns over when the economy will start to recover continued to put pressure on prices.

Greek stocks staged a remarkable turnaround on Thursday, as they swapped losses for gains, boosted by the reversal of bank stocks' fortunes. This was mainly seen as a reaction to the recent decline of prices from the January 4 peak, and was implemented on the highest daily turnover so far this year.

The Greek stock market took last Friday's positive report by Fitch Ratings in its stride. Still, the new strain of the coronavirus has put fresh pressure on stock prices across the continent and most local blue chips took fresh losses on Monday.

A mixed Wednesday on the Greek bourse saw gainers edge out the losers and provided the benchmark with just enough fuel to climb back above the 800-point level, thanks mainly to the growth of bank stocks for the second day in a row.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market narrowly managed to avoid dropping below the 800-point mark on Monday as investors indulged in profit taking following the recent gains enjoyed by most stocks. All but two blue chips suffered losses, led by banks, in line with most other European markets.

The Greek bourse hit the ground running on the first trading day of 2021 on Monday, with prices growing as the session progressed and the closing auctions taking the benchmark above 820 points for the first time in almost 11 months. This time it was mainly energy stocks and other non-bank blue chips that led the index higher.

Greek stocks recovered somewhat on Tuesday from Monday's slump due to the UK's troubles with the mutation of the coronavirus and the impasse in the Brexit talks, as the benchmark climbed back up to 780 points. However, the level of trading volume indicated that the minds of many were already occupied with the holidays.

Thursday's bourse session was relatively quiet ahead of Friday's triple witching, with some selective profit-taking among blue chips. Stocks were split between winners and losers, with banks showing some significant fluctuations before settling for moderate losses.