OTE TELECOM

OTE telecom will be implementing two new voluntary redundancy programs at the end of the month.
The programs concern more than 400 employees across the various departments and subsidiaries of the group and will cost a total of 55 million euros, or about €130,000 per departing employee on average.

OTE Telecom, Greece's biggest telecoms operator, reported on Thursday a 3.6 percent rise in core profit thanks to increased data traffic and usage of broadband services amid the coronavirus lockdown.

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.

Traders' reaction on Tuesday to two sessions of significant losses for stocks was encouraging for the benchmark and blue chips, but rather disappointing in terms of turnover. The market appears to be waiting for Moody's verdict on the economy on Friday.

Despite Wednesday's early gains at Athinon Avenue, in line with most eurozone bourses, the session ended with a relatively small increase on particularly low daily turnover, which points to the market's reservations about the economy's emergence from the coronavirus crisis, especially as far as the creation of new nonperforming loans for Greek lenders is concerned.

OTE Telecom will cut expenses drastically to ensure it meets its targets for 2020 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and free cash flow, the CEO of Greece's biggest telecom operator said on Tuesday.
OTE Telecom, which is 46 percent owned and managed by Deutsche Telecom, Europe's biggest, has projected free cash flow of 350 million euros this year.

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 Greek stock market experienced another mixed session on Wednesday, with the majority of stocks heading south, led by banks, while several blue chips withstood the pressure to continue the rebound they had begun on Tuesday. The ban on short-selling until April 24 is set to contain the volatility recently observed at Athinon Avenue.

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 followed the trend set by most eurozone bourses and continued its southbound course at the start of the week. This was despite the drop of the benchmark 10-year bond's yield close to 1 percent.