Economy of Europe

Greek banks will undergo capital stress tests in order to get the green light from the European Central Bank's supervisory mechanism to distribute dividends to shareholders, the head of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) board, Andrea Enria, told Kathimerini.

Wargaming Group, a Cypriot technology company, intends to remain a shareholder in Hellenic Bank, Cyprus' second largest lender.

Despite selling a 13.41% stake to Greek banking group Eurobank in early December, Wargaming says its goal now is to focus on what it says it "does best," which is creating good games.

Bank accounts will automatically be converted from BGN to EUR on the day of the introduction of the single European currency, emphasized the Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Dimitar Radev in his publication in the bulletin of the Association of Commercial Banks.

After a day's respite, the Greek stock market returned to its upward course on Friday, with the benchmark covering some of its Thursday losses on its way toward the 1,000-point mark.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras met on Thursday with Andrea Enria, chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).

Enria met with Stournaras and other members of the Bank of Greece's administration, as well as with representatives of the managements of Greek banks and the Hellenic Bank Association.

BELGRADE - The Serbian dinar's official median exchange rate against the euro is 117.3726 dinars for one euro on Friday, which is a slight change from Thursday, the National Bank of Serbia said.

The dinar is steady against the euro m-o-m and up by 0.2 pct y-o-y.

The recent announcement of a long-term energy agreement between Turkey and Bulgaria giving Bulgargaz access for 13 years to the regasification terminals of Turkey's state-run Botas pipeline company, thus offering assured quantities, came as a surprise to some and caused consternation in Athens.

The main index at Athinon Avenue came off its eight-year peak on Thursday with a significant drop that bore the marks of profit-taking, but with a significant trading volume that showed interest remains considerable in the local bourse. This was only the second session of decline for the benchmark of the local stock market since the start of the year.

The constant march higher of Greek stocks continued on Wednesday, on a considerably increased turnover thanks to a number of business deals that not only increased the trading volume but also further fed the optimism among investors for medium-term gains. More than half of the day's turnover took place during the closing auctions.

Greek stocks maintained their growth momentum for another day on Tuesday, despite the attention the issue of the 10-year sovereign bond commanded, with the main index climbing to another eight-year high. Even when European bourses headed lower and some traders indulged in profit-taking, buyers retained the upper hand, with the benchmark edging ever closer to 1,000 points.