Athinon Avenue

The placement of the state's stake in Piraeus Bank deservedly monopolized interest at Athinon Avenue on Monday, and the huge interest generated boosted the benchmark and most other stocks in the market that climbed to new 13-year highs.

Some 200 striking taxi drivers joined a motorcade across Athens on Tuesday, adding to the already considerable woes faced by commuters by the stoppage.

January ended with a new 10-year high for the Greek stock market benchmark, which also posted monthly growth of 5.82%. Going from strength to strength, the Athens bourse saw prices rise for a third month in succession, while trading volume is also showing signs of health.

The stock market at Athinon Avenue came off Wednesday's decade-high to suffer losses on Thursday that were somewhat moderated by the end of the session. Observers noted the intention of investors to sell and secure some liquidity in order to join the public offering of Athens International Airport - a process that began on Thursday.

The exit to Athens International Airport on the Attiki Odos ring road will be closed to traffic from 10 p.m. on Tuesday night until 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the highway's operator has said.

Exit 7 from Dimokratias Avenue in Acharnes towards the airport will be closed as maintenance is carried out on that stretch of the road, the company said.

Tuesday saw the benchmark at Athinon Avenue avoid another decline as it held on to some of its gains and ended the day in the black and on a week-high, albeit on reduced turnover. On Wednesday the Greek bourse is entering the three-day period for the floating of Optima, the first bank to be listed on the Greek stock market since the end of the financial crisis.

Investors unleashed a buying spree at the Greek stock market on Tuesday, after the three-day weekend, with the price growth gathering momentum as the session went along.

Athinon Avenue returned to action on Tuesday after a four-day recess and rewarded those anticipating its reopening with a wholesome session of growth that boosted the benchmark by over 1.7% and pushed daily turnover above 100 million euros. However, the main index once again proved not ready to clear the 1,100-point bar.

The US Fed and European Central Bank rate hikes went largely according to expectations, so eurozone stock markets, including Greece's, proceeded smoothly on Thursday with sessions of mild gains.

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.