Economic indicators

The Goldman Sachs comment on Wednesday afternoon that the Greek economy will stay strong despite any political turmoil, and even regain investment grade in three weeks' time, helped the Greek stock market secure gains on Wednesday, even if it had struggled to keep pace with the rest of its eurozone peers. Moody's positive outlook of the local credit sector also helped.

Traders at Athinon Avenue reacted with surprise to the largely predictable announcement of the general election on May 21, swinging the main index of the Greek stock market to losses that exceeded 1% by the end of Tuesday's session.

The Greek bourse recovered almost half of the ground it had lost in the near-3% decline of its benchmark last Friday, but it was on particularly low turnover, which does not bode well for the coming days. 

Tuesday was a day of healthy gains on the Greek stock market, reminiscent of the sessions of high growth in the first couple of months of 2023. Assurances by domestic and foreign experts over the strength of the local credit system offered a major boost to bank stocks that led blue chips to a significant rebound.

The Greek stock market opened the week with a 2.1% decline in Monday's first few minutes, as a result of the shocking news of Credit Suisse's demise and takeover by fellow Swiss lender UBS, but stocks gradually began to recover and swung back into the black as the session progressed to close with moderate gains in their majority.

The reaction of Greek stocks to several days of decline, which had even put the benchmark's grip on the 1,000-point mark at risk, finally arrived on Tuesday, with banks leading the recovery of prices at Athinon Avenue. The advance accelerated after the announcement of inflation data from the US, with the main index closing near the day's highs.

The rising sequence of 11 weeks came to an emphatic end on Friday, with the Greek bourse benchmark this week losing a significant portion of the ground gained over the last month. This was topped by a strong decline on the day, amounting to almost 2.5 percentage points, driven by international concern over banks, which also affected the local credit sector's prospects.

The Greek bourse appears to have stemmed the outflow of funds seen at the start of the week and is preparing for its next move upward, after another session - on Wednesday - where blue chips rebounded, with the exception of banks. Reports by foreign firms, such as that by Jefferies, indicate that there is more to come from where the January and February momentum came from.

Unfazed by political developments in Parliament, the Greek stock market held its ground on Wednesday after its benchmark temporarily climbed above 1,000 points again. Traders engaged selectively in some profit taking while many investors are expecting the issue of corporate results that begins on Thursday, as well as Friday's credit rating report on Greece by Fitch.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market took another leap on Monday to get closer to the psychologically significant 1,000-point mark, as bank stocks led the bourse index to a new eight-year high. This first testing of the waters around 1,000 points showed the milestone may prove easier to attain than the previous one - i.e.