OTE TELECOM

The huge investor interest in the Greek 15-year bond issued on Tuesday distracted traders from the Athens stock market, which saw early gains turn into losses toward the end of the session. After two days of contraction, stock prices are likely to rebound from Wednesday.

The positive views on the Greek economy and its banks by various foreign firms, including rating agency DBRS Morningstar, continue to feed traders' buying interest, which is also trickling down to mid- and small-caps. This carried the benchmark through to another day of growth on Wednesday, on higher trading volume too thanks to a number of packages that changed hands.

One of the main issues for the government in 2020 will be claims for retroactive payments by millions of pensioners. The process will begin on January 10 with a hearing at the Council of State whose outcome is expected to affect claims worth billions of euros by 2.5 million retirees.

Imported concerns about the US-Chinese trade negotiations weighed on the Greek stock market on Wednesday, on the back of the release of Alpha Bank's third-quarter results on Tuesday and ahead of Thursday's results by National and Eurobank.

The Council of State, Greece's top administrative court, upheld a lower court decision to slap a 3.46-million-euro fine on OTE Telecom for installing phone booths in the northern port city of Thessaloniki without permission from the municipality.
A section of the court decided that the ruling of an administrative appeal court in Thessaloniki was in line with its case law.

The Greek bourse had another mixed day on Tuesday, with the market awaiting feedback from Brussels regarding the draft budget Athens has submitted, but in the end all indexes closed in the black thanks to a number of stocks posting firm gains.

OTE telecom announced on Wednesday the conclusion on Tuesday of the bookbuilding process for the issuance of a 500 million-euro seven-year bond in international debt capital markets.
The issuance was strongly oversubscribed allowing tight pricing. The coupon was set at 0.875 percent, the lowest ever achieved, OTE stated.

It is happening sooner than anticipated: Two major Greek companies - namely oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum and OTE telecom - are preparing to borrow hundreds of millions of euros from the markets. Meanwhile, the country is about to rid itself of the expensive loans granted by the International Monetary Fund and plans to tap financial markets.

The benchmark of the Greek bourse jumped 20 points on Thursday after a sudden buying spree by traders that saw banks earn almost 4 percent. The favorable climate on foreign markets and the continuing decline of Greek bond yields appear to have convinced investors to buy back into local stocks again.

The decline of OTE telecom and profit taking in bank stocks saw the benchmark of the Greek bourse ease somewhat on Wednesday from Tuesday's nine-month highs, although the majority of stocks remained in the black for one more session. Reports on election handouts by the government did not help blue chips or bond prices, which also slipped from recent highs.