OPAP

The Greek stock market ended the last week before the general election with gains, which made it the third consecutive week of growth for the benchmark at Athinon Avenue. The market appears calm ahead of the polls, in contrast with what is happening on the other side of the Aegean, while turnover in Athens increased on Friday thanks to maturing of the month's derivatives.

OPAP, the leading gaming operator in Greece, said net profits jumped 128.3% to 592.3 million euros in 2022 from €259.4 million in 2021, with fourth-quarter net profit at €306.5 million (boosted by a €181.3 million profit from the sale of Betano), an increase of 277.6% from the same period in 2021.

The reaction of Greek stocks to several days of decline, which had even put the benchmark's grip on the 1,000-point mark at risk, finally arrived on Tuesday, with banks leading the recovery of prices at Athinon Avenue. The advance accelerated after the announcement of inflation data from the US, with the main index closing near the day's highs.

The rising sequence of 11 weeks came to an emphatic end on Friday, with the Greek bourse benchmark this week losing a significant portion of the ground gained over the last month. This was topped by a strong decline on the day, amounting to almost 2.5 percentage points, driven by international concern over banks, which also affected the local credit sector's prospects.

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.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market ended the week at its lowest level since Christmas, with traders remaining reserved about the course of the economy as the pandemic continues to break one record after another internationally.

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.

The Greek bourse benchmark's 14-session rising streak - the first this century - came to an end on Thursday, with significant losses for the majority of stocks, although not all blue chips followed the bank stocks on their steep decline. At any rate, the benchmark demonstrated that it is not yet ready to conquer the 800-point mark.

The international buying spree that on Tuesday took the Dow Jones over 30,000 points in New York contributed to the Greek bourse's main index holding its ground and putting some distance between it and the 700-point mark, despite the profit-taking recorded by most bank stocks.

Thursday's session on the Athens Stock Exchange was even more subdued than recent days, if that is possible.

In the end, the general index, which had been showing mild losses throughout, tipped over into positive territory, closing at 637.27 points, a gain of 0.36%. Late gains in OTE Telecom were the main reason.

Turnover was €23.61 million on volume of 16,373,894 shares.