Hellenic Exchanges

The benchmark of the Greek bourse ended Monday's session close to last Friday's eight-month high as traders' efforts to cash in recent gains met the resistance of certain blue chips that refused to yield ground. This resulted in a mixed picture on the board, with gainers outnumbering losers at the end of trade.

Bank stocks jumped almost 8 percent on Monday to take the benchmark of the Greek bourse to a new seven-month high - on notable turnover too. Traders appear to be buying into the prospects of a green light from Friday's Eurogroup for the 1-billion-euro tranche to Athens and of a Standard & Poor's rating upgrade later this month.

Stock prices continued their advance on Thursday at Athinon Avenue as buying interest remained strong, helping the market's main index register a six-month high, while turnover climbed to its highest in eight sessions.

The increasing realization that the general elections will probably take place earlier than scheduled and the continued slide in bond yields powered bank stocks to major gains on Monday, driven by National and Piraeus. Trading volume improved too.

A consortium led by Kuwait's National Investment Co and including the Athens bourse won a tender to acquire 44 percent of the Kuwait stock exchange.

"There are plans by the Kuwait exchange for an IPO at a later stage to sell 50 percent and get listed," Socrates Lazaridis, CEO at Hellenic Exchanges, told Reuters last Thursday.

Foreign investors accounted for more than half of total trading activity on Greece's stock market last year, executives at stock and futures operator Hellenic Exchanges said on Wednesday.

Greek equities fell 23.6 percent in 2018, a tough year in which banks took a beating. But mid-cap shares bucked the downtrend for a second straight year.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market closed at the day's low on Wednesday but still managed to hold on to a sliver of gains in the face of the blue chip index's marginal slide as mid-caps propped up the market. Turnover was the highest so far this week.

Greek stocks lost all the gains registered earlier in the day and then some, completing a sixth consecutive southbound session for the benchmark at Athinon Avenue on Tuesday.

Greek stocks slipped on Monday for the fifth session in a row, suggesting that the previous Monday's major gains were a mere blip. Turnover was particularly low, pointing to the unlikelihood of a year-end rally, given that there are only 12 sessions left to go in 2018.

Oversold bank stocks staged a remarkable rebound in Thursday's bourse session, with Alpha and National announcing a return to profit in July-September at the end of the trading day. The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) was also buoyed by rallying international markets, the drop in Greek bond yields and a favorable report by Moody's on the Bank of Greece proposal for slashing bad loans.