Hellenic Exchanges

Bank stocks continued their advance on Tuesday, while investor attention was focused on the benchmark bond issue, but non-banking stocks dragged the main index lower at the start of this four-day trading week at Athinon Avenue.

Traders had appeared set to cash in recent stock gains at Athinon Avenue on Thursday, but the European Central Bank's announcement that assistance for eurozone member-states would be boosted contained the drop in prices, while the mid-cap index went up.

Bank stocks were back in the driving seat at Athinon Avenue on Wednesday, taking the Greek bourse benchmark to a new three-month high - i.e. its highest since the coronavirus epidemic began in Greece. The 700-point milestone seems to be growing closer, while investors appear to have plenty of disposable cash.

The benchmark of the Greek bourse shook off its midsession losses on Thursday to end the session with gains fueled by the positive start on US markets and the global rise in commodities, although bank stocks failed to get the memo. Turnover remained low.

The flexibility that the credit sector has secured from the European Central Bank and the reserved optimism that the restriction measures in Greece are bearing fruit, amid more handout pledges by the government, saw the local stock market head higher on Monday in a relatively calm environment for global securities.

The failure of Thursday's European Union summit to reach an agreement on the issue of extraordinary bonds, dubbed "corona bonds," and the temptation to cash in gains recorded on Tuesday and Thursday led the benchmark of the Greek bourse back down to the 550-point level on Friday.

Athinon Avenue took another tumble on Wednesday, with the benchmark losses topping 4 percent and the banks index more than 6 percent worse off. Daily turnover dropped below the 100-million-euro mark after several days.

OTE telecom was the protagonist in Wednesday's bourse session following the issue of its 2019 financial results that showed a rise in profits, leading to 2.32 percent growth for its stock while accounting for over two-fifths of all of the day's trading. That helped the benchmark at Athinon Avenue record its first day of gains this week.

The Greek stock market has now chalked up four declining sessions out of four so far in November, only on Wednesday the closing auctions failed to rein in the losses incurred by the benchmark. The banks index took quite a hit, tumbling almost 5 percent.

Participants in the Greek stock market were on Friday waiting for Greece's sovereign credit rating to be upgraded by Standard & Poor's late in the night, not to mention the upcoming national holiday on Monday, and most stocks saw little change in thin trade. The benchmark came off the day's lows to close with minor losses.