Motor Oil

The benchmark of the Greek stock market now has the 700-point level in its sights after its sixth day of gains in seven sessions. Construction blue chips led the way this time.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 658.35 points, adding 0.88% to Friday's 652.58 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index expanded 0.52% to 1,579.70 points, while mid-caps contracted 0.25%.

The upcoming rebalancing of the MSCI Greek stock indexes and profit taking after five consecutive days of gains led to losses at Athinon Avenue on Friday, with a huge daily turnover. Notably 70% of trading volume took placing during the closing auctions. The benchmark of the Athens stock market ended May with a monthly advance of 3.87%, though banks lost 2.94%.

On a day when Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange remained closed, the Greek bourse secured a rather satisfactory turnover of almost 50 million euros on Monday, with traders opting to position themselves ahead of this Friday's upcoming index rebalancing. Leading the benchmark to strong gains were bank stocks, which were oversold in previous sessions.

Bank stocks led the Greek bourse lower on Tuesday, in line with most European markets, as traders chose to cash in the gains recorded in the last couple of sessions at Athinon Avenue. The market is now awaiting Wednesday's new package of measures aimed at restarting the economy.

Bank stocks came under fresh pressure on Thursday, with the benchmark yielding more ground at the close despite spending some time in the black during the day. Global pessimism regarding the economy and the World Health Organization's statement that the coronavirus may never go away weighed on most markets, with Athinon Avenue proving to be no exception.

Credit sector stocks led the benchmark of the Greek bourse further below the 600-point mark on Wednesday. It followed the relegation of the domestic banks' outlook from positive to stable by Moody's, and the restructuring of the MSCI index, which also sent trading volume to its highest point in 15 sessions.

April ended at the Greek stock market on Thursday with some profit taking by traders who cashed in on this week's rise by specific stocks such as banks. Despite that daily drop, April closed with a 12.54 percent advance for the benchmark, to become the first month this year with an increase for the bourse.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market rose to a seven-week high on Tuesday as it continued its recovery in tandem with the easing of restrictions on economic activity announced. It appears the market will continue to ebb and flow according to the course of the pandemic even after the end of the lockdown next week.

The country's oil refineries, which are directly linked to the global oil market, are having to manage an unprecedented situation as a result of the volatility created by the slump in demand due to travel restrictions enforced around the world to contain Covid-19 and which sector officials describe to Kathimerini as the absolute imbalance of supply and demand.

Tuesday's trading session at Athinon Avenue, which closed without any news from the Eurogroup meeting, continued along Monday's growth path, taking the stock market's gains to 4.3 billion euros in capitalization terms from the start of the week as the benchmark has rebounded by almost 12.4 percent in total. This has been accompanied by a fresh decline in bond yields.