Athens Exchange

The Athens stock market managed to remain on a rising course on Tuesday, on presentable trading volume, although stocks painted a mixed picture and the banks index headed lower. Traders were very selective, opting to cash in recent bank stock gains while buying into other blue chips and mid-caps.

Bank stocks jumped almost 8 percent on Monday to take the benchmark of the Greek bourse to a new seven-month high - on notable turnover too. Traders appear to be buying into the prospects of a green light from Friday's Eurogroup for the 1-billion-euro tranche to Athens and of a Standard & Poor's rating upgrade later this month.

The Greek bourse benchmark rose 1.96 percent over the month of March, taking the growth of the main index in the first quarter of the year to 17.62 percent.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 721.37 points on Friday, adding 1.08 percent to Thursday's 713.66 points. On a weekly basis it advanced 1.85 percent.

Piraeus Bank grew profit in last year's final quarter as net interest income rose, Greece's largest lender by assets said on Friday.
Piraeus Bank, which is 26.2 percent owned by the country's HFSF bank rescue fund, reported a net profit from continued operations of 145 million euros after net earnings of 94 million in the third quarter.

The closing auctions erased almost all of the earlier losses at the Greek bourse on Thursday, with the benchmark ending the day virtually unchanged and the blue chip index continuing its rise thanks to support from OTE and OPAP.

Greek lenders Alpha Bank and National Bank reported a sharp fall in profit in the last quarter of 2018 as they focused on reducing their piles of bad loans.
Alpha, Greece's fourth-largest lender by assets, reported a net loss from continuing operations of 0.4 million euros in the October to December period after a net profit of 41.1 million euros in the third quarter.

Bank stocks and a few other blue chips propped up the benchmark at Athinon Avenue on Wednesday as the majority of stocks on the board headed south and trading volume sank.

After another impasse at Monday's Euro Working Group, the Athens bourse shook off the pressure on bank stocks on Tuesday, with the majority of stocks and the benchmark heading higher on a day of healthy turnover.

An unexpectedly aggressive selling spree by holders of bank stocks on Friday inflicted the heaviest daily selloff in the credit sector in over four months. The impact on the rest of the market was significant as there was hardly any reaction among non-bank stocks.

Another mixed day at the Greek bourse on Thursday saw the majority of stocks head south while most main indexes ended up with gains in a session of increased trading volume thanks to several prearranged transactions.