Economic indicators

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 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.

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.

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.

The Greek stock market recovered somewhat on Wednesday after three days of losses thanks to a buying spree during the closing auctions that took the main indexes to the day's high amid a positive mood in most foreign markets.

The market's positive reaction to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' announcements at the weekend in Thessaloniki lasted for just a few minutes at Athinon Avenue on Monday, as traders chose to sell given that they had no fresh reasons for buying. Trading volume slumped to low levels again.

A mixed session at the bourse on Friday brought the first post-election week to a close with losses for the benchmark, while the market also used some of its cash availability to cover the bond issue by National Bank.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 858.33 points, shedding 0.58 percent from Thursday's 863.33 points. On a weekly basis it shrank 4.06 percent.

Warnings from the Bank of Greece and Goldman Sachs over the course of the Greek economy, not to mention international concerns on foreign markets over the raging trade war, led on Wednesday to the complete erasure of the gains recorded by the Athinon Avenue benchmark on Tuesday.

Significant losses over the previous days prompted a reaction from investors in the Greek stock market on Friday, in line with the rebound noted in most European bourses. However the benchmark ended the week almost 5 percent worse off, largely due to the handout package announced by the government on Tuesday.