Athens Exchange

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.

Investors appeared uninspired in what was a fairly quiet session at the Greek stock market on Thursday, with the few traders that could be bothered making select purchases. This took turnover back below the 50-million-euro mark while the benchmark kept to a very narrow range.

The benchmark at Athinon Avenue again shied away from the 900-point level on Wednesday, only this time the pressure came from abroad, namely the increasing political uncertainty in Washington and London. Losses were significantly contained in the closing auctions, while Public Power Corporation made an outstanding comeback.

Bank stocks led blue chips and the main index of the Greek bourse higher on Tuesday, but smaller stocks recorded minor losses as traders appear to be gradually losing interest in them.

The blow dealt by the bankruptcy of UK tour operator Thomas Cook to the Greek economy was too big for traders at the local stock market to ignore on Monday, leading to significant losses for many stocks, albeit on rather low turnover.

September's triple-witching and the rebalancing of indexes led to the largest daily turnover on the Greek stock market in the last three-and-a-half months on Friday. This was sealed in the closing auctions, when the benchmark reverted to positive territory at the end of another week of gains.

Athinon Avenue presented a mixed picture on Thursday, swinging back and forth between negative and positive territory before the benchmark finally ended only just in the black while losing stocks edged out the gainers by just one.

The containment of the rise in global oil rates and the new all-time low in the 10-year Greek bond yield spurred local stocks to a notable rise on Wednesday, with a remarkable increase in trading volume too.