Athens Exchange

The Greek stock market remained on a northbound course for the third session in a row on Wednesday, even if that was on rather thin turnover. This time it was bank stocks that pulled the cart out of market stagnation, although mid-caps headed lower.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 764.33 points, adding 0.49% to Tuesday's 760.59 points.

The Greek bourse followed on Tuesday in the footsteps left by major foreign markets over the last couple of days, taking its benchmark just over the 760-point mark, though banks had less to do with that growth than other blue chips. Turnover saw a marked improvement too.

Underperforming its European peers, Athinon Avenue was virtually flat at the end of the week's first session as it failed to catch the wave of gains observed in the rest of the eurozone, partly due to concerns about the course of the pandemic in Greece. Losing stocks narrowly edged out the gainers, but most indexes closed with slight growth.

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.

Greek stocks staged a remarkable turnaround on Thursday, as they swapped losses for gains, boosted by the reversal of bank stocks' fortunes. This was mainly seen as a reaction to the recent decline of prices from the January 4 peak, and was implemented on the highest daily turnover so far this year.

The market's focus on the sovereign bond issue left the field wide open for sellers on the local bourse - and they took full advantage of it. Stocks suffered significant losses, again led by the bank sector. It had been expected by many that stocks were set to fall in Athens and the rest of Europe, due to rising concerns over vaccine supplies.

The stock market's reaction after three days of losses proved half-hearted on Tuesday, as the early recovery was contained later on, with most bank stocks posting losses. Some traders will have decided to save some of their liquidity for the new 10-year bond issue, which Greece announced on Tuesday halfway through the trading session.

The Greek stock market took last Friday's positive report by Fitch Ratings in its stride. Still, the new strain of the coronavirus has put fresh pressure on stock prices across the continent and most local blue chips took fresh losses on Monday.

Greek stocks suffered extensive losses at the end of the week, underperforming their peers across most of the continent. While the prospect of the share capital increases in banks takes its toll on the local market in general, the trend for sales was universal, affecting even the majority of small-caps.

Despite the early euphoria on most European markets after the peaceful inauguration of Joe Biden in Washington, which led Asian stocks higher too, the afternoon saw prices slide at Athinon Avenue, led by banks. Traders would have liked to hear some more concrete comments from the European Central Bank on Thursday other than Frankfurt's decision to stay put.