Athens Exchange

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.

The Athens bourse played second fiddle to the Greek bond market on Tuesday, but buyers returned when the benchmark hit a low of 818 points - after the bond's book closed - and by the closing bell the main index's losses had halved.

The prospect of Greece reopening its 10-year bond issued in March appeared to have seized the attention of most traders on the Greek stock market on Monday, with observers getting the distinct impression they were saving their cash for the reissue that is expected to fetch 1.5 billion euros on Tuesday.

The main index of the Greek stock market continued to slide for a fourth consecutive day on Thursday, though not as dramatically as Wednesday's 3 percent drop. The morning's brief reaction to three days of losses gave way to another selling spree later in the day, leading the benchmark close to the 820-point mark.

Stocks continued to decline on Tuesday at Athinon Avenue, as pressure grew, mainly on bank stocks, before easing during the closing auctions.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 861.50 points, shedding 0.80 percent from Monday's 868.42 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index contracted 0.79 percent to 2,139.95 points, while small-caps increased 0.22 percent.

While the Greek stock benchmark finished Friday's session firmly in the black thanks to an upward swing toward the end of trade, it was not enough to offset all the week's losses. Observers say the market is awaiting some significant business deals that are still in the early stages.