Eurobank Ergasias

Bank stocks and the rest of the Greek stock market appeared to be in two parallel universes on Wednesday, as the former suffered losses after days of growth, while the vast majority of listed companies enjoyed gains for another day, taking the benchmark higher.

he Athens Stock Exchange finally aligned itself with the positive turn on the European markets Tuesday, as it rebounded from Monday's significant losses to close 1.47% higher.

This rebound was achieved on very low turnover, which dropped below €30 million, a clear indication of investors' reluctance to see an upside.

World markets were upbeat on Tuesday, following the announcement of bolstering measures by the central banks of the US and Japan, while expectations for an economic rebound starting in the second half of the year added to global stocks' upward swing. In Greece, Athinon Avenue enjoyed a day of significant gains that rose over the course of the day across the board.

Losses accelerated at the Greek stock market on Wednesday as buyers were far outnumbered by buyers and the benchmark closed at the day's low. Bank and energy stocks lost much of the ground gained in recent days.

Eurobank has moved ahead of Greek peers in the drive to cut bad loan volumes after completing a deal with Italian debt recovery firm doValue, and is now focused on boosting lending, its chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

The various channels of liquidity that central banks the world over are offering to markets have boosted prices on the majority of international bourses. Athinon Avenue happily rode the buyers' wave on Tuesday, with interest focusing almost exclusively on blue chips.

Greece's third-largest lender Eurobank more than doubled its first-quarter net profit on the back of lower provisions for impaired loans and higher fee and commission income, it said on Friday.
Eurobank, which is 2.4% owned by the country's HFSF bank rescue fund, reported net earnings of 57 million euros, up from €22 million in last year's first quarter.

The upcoming rebalancing of the MSCI Greek stock indexes and profit taking after five consecutive days of gains led to losses at Athinon Avenue on Friday, with a huge daily turnover. Notably 70% of trading volume took placing during the closing auctions. The benchmark of the Athens stock market ended May with a monthly advance of 3.87%, though banks lost 2.94%.

Greece's third-largest lender Eurobank more than doubled its first-quarter net profit on the back of lower provisions for impaired loans and higher fee and commission income, it said on Friday.

Eurobank, which is 2.4% owned by the country's HFSF bank rescue fund, reported net earnings of 57 million euros ($63.4 million), up from 22 million euros in last year's first quarter.

There is strong competition among banks for participation in the Guarantee Fund for the provision of state-subsidized liquidity to Greek enterprises, with 14 lenders expressing an interest in response to the invitation published by the Hellenic Development Bank.