Economy of Greece

The National Bank of Greece board meeting interrupted last week upon the demand of major shareholder the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund due to a clash over the election of a new president is scheduled to resume on Wednesday.

The FBI's announcement that it had found nothing to incriminate US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in her emails buoyed stocks internationally, while this, coupled with local traders' moderate satisfaction with Friday's cabinet reshuffle, led to gains at Athinon Avenue on Monday.

Andreas Vgenopoulos, the lawyer turned businessman who founded one of Greece's largest holding groups, died at the age of 63 early on Saturday following a heart attack.

Vgenopoulos was the founder of Marfin Investment Group, which owned a number of businesses in Greece and southeastern Europe.

The benchmark index of the Greek bourse declined for the fourth session in a row yesterday, in line with its international peers, where the general feeling was one of nervousness as to what the political landscape will look like after the US election on Tuesday. This also explains the very low trading volume at Athinon Avenue.

The closing auctions sent the Greek bourse benchmark into the red on Thursday, while the OPAP gaming company dominated trading for the second day in a row.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 578.23 points, shedding 0.57 percent from Wednesday's 581.56 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index fell 0.13 percent to 1,529.32 points.

Vasilis Papadopoulos confirmed his resignation as Migration Ministry General Secretary on Thursday, following a report in daily Eleftheros Typos published on the same day.

The Greek bourse benchmark would have fallen much further on Wednesday if it weren't for OPAP. As it was, the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) didn't do too badly compared to its European peers, while the gaming company's stock accounted for nearly half of the session's increased trading volume.

Fears of complications in Greece's second bailout review and further tremors in the runup to the US elections weighed on the majority of Greek stocks on Tuesday, with the benchmark giving up close to 1.5 percent.

Activity in Greece's manufacturing sector contracted again in October with the key indicator hitting a five-month low as production and new orders declined, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The amount of shuttered storefronts as a percentage of all shops in central Athens has crept up, reversing the trend of the first half of the year, according to data released by the Hellenic Confederation of Commerce and Enterprises (ESEE).

In September empty stores amounted to 28.1 percent of the total across the country, with the rate in Athens coming to 26.4 percent.