Athens Exchange

The Greek bourse benchmark is steadily approaching the 900-point mark after its advance on Tuesday on considerably increased turnover, mainly thanks to the further decline of Greek bond yields ahead of anticipated credit rating upgrades.

Stocks in Athens resisted pressures and continued their upward trajectory on Monday, with banks getting the credit for grabbing investors' attention and leading the benchmark higher, although turnover remained below the 50-million-euro mark. Traders appear to be pricing in a likely Greek credit rating upgrade this Friday by Standard & Poor's.

Unlike most of its eurozone counterparts, which appeared particularly nervous due to the raging international trade wars, Athinon Avenue demonstrated resilience on Friday, again edging higher, although this time turnover was in line with the weather in Athens, reminiscent of the dog days of summer. This resilience was also reflected in Greek bond yields, which dived to new historic lows.

The Greek stock market benchmark edged marginally higher again on Thursday, but the increase in turnover did not translate into a significant advance for blue chips, as their index ended up in the red. Gains for small-caps, on the other hand, led to winners surpassing the losers at the end of the session.

Another session of little change for the Greek bourse benchmark ended on Wednesday, with the most notable gains being reserved for mid-caps, such as realty firm REDS, which earned 5.36 percent after the approval of its Cambas development project.

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.

Greek stocks held their ground on Monday as early losses gave way to a late surge that offset the selling action and left the benchmark virtually unchanged at the beginning of the trading week. The low turnover pointed to the wait-and-see stance adopted by larger portfolios, while bond yields have started to edge higher.

The banks index at Athinon Avenue enjoyed a second consecutive day of gains in excess of 4 percent on Friday, building not only on the advance of the Heracles plan for the securitization of bad loans, but also on the upward momentum observed in foreign stock markets. That also led to the benchmark attaining growth just shy of 2 percent.

The stock market's positive reaction to the European Commission's approval of the state's bad-loan reduction plan boosted bank stocks and helped the benchmark climb further during trading on Thursday at Athinon Avenue.

The treasury bill issue that recorded a negative yield for the first time in Greece's history dominated trading at the local stock market on Wednesday, with investors beginning to anticipate a credit rating upgrade for Greece coming sooner rather than later.