Economy of Greece

The benchmark’s seven-session rising streak came to an end at the Athens bourse on Thursday, as the news of Alpha Bank’s better-than-expected first-quarter results was tempered by the departure of the lender’s head, Yiannis Costopoulos.

Greek gambling monopoly OPAP, one of Europe’s biggest betting firms, said it expected revenue to grow by a double-digit percentage this year, thanks to the planned launch of new games.

Gambling monopoly OPAP posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit due to a rise in sports betting and cost-cutting.

The company said first-quarter net profit rose 27.6 percent to 49.7 million euros, beating the average forecast of seven analysts in a Reuters poll of 44.5 million euros.

The local bourse’s sixth consecutive day of gains, made on the strength of the balanced election results and a return to normality, took the benchmark above the 1,200-point level on Tuesday, with improved first-quarter results also playing a role. The Greek market had not seen six straight days of growth in over three months.

A Council of State decision that raises obstacles to the privatization of the Athens Water Company (EYDAP) and the election of a new Piraeus mayor who is against the sale of the OLP port authority failed to dampen investors’ relief on Monday at Greece’s European and local election results, which appear to have reduced the chances of an early general election, for now at least.

Unaffected by the country’s credit upgrade by Fitch, the Athens bourse benchmark spent most of the day on Friday hovering around Thursday’s level. However, it enjoyed a significant rise in the last couple of hours as confidence that Sunday’s elections will not harm political stability grew.

OPAP, one of Europe’s biggest betting firms, plans to launch long-awaited online sports betting before the start of the soccer World Cup in June, its CEO said on Thursday, in a bid to capitalize on the popular event.

Fitch ratings agency has upgraded Greece's sovereign debt rating by one notch, citing the country's improved deficit figures.

Although still deep in junk status, Friday's upgrade on Greek bonds, from B- to B, was a boost for the country that has been struggling through a devastating financial crisis for the past four years.

Greek stocks staged an impressive rebound on Tuesday, with the Athens benchmark adding almost 5 percent and all blue chips securing healthy gains on the day that more than 1.136 billion new National Bank shares were introduced.

The relative easing of investor concerns after Sunday’s rather inconclusive local election results gave way to another selling spree on Monday that forced losses of almost 2 percent on the local market’s benchmark, with turnover remaining high.