Eurobank Ergasias

There were across-the-board gains at the Athens bourse on Wednesday, led by Public Power Corporation and banks, while trading volume appears to be growing by the day in a clear sign that something is changing in the market that a few years ago was relegated from developed to developing.

The new three-year plans aimed at cutting bad loans to be presented to the Single Supervisory Mechanism by banks at end-March will be bolder and more front-heavy.

Greece's third-largest lender Eurobank on Thursday reported lower full-year 2018 net profit as operating income declined, but said it was on track to deliver on a plan to transform its business by year-end.

Local stocks headed south on Thursday in response to economic growth data and news of the possible postponement of the disbursement to Athens of eurozone central banks' profits from Greek bond holdings. Banks outperformed thanks to the European Central Bank's decision to issue a new round of low-cost loans to the eurozone's credit sector, starting this fall.

Greek bank stocks followed their eurozone peers on Wednesday, posting significant gains on a Bloomberg report about the possible renewing of cheap loans (known as targeted longer-term refinancing operations or TLTRO) for banks that the European Central Bank may decide on at a Governing Council meeting on Thursday.

The prospects of a Greek 10-year bond issue and a new tender for the sale of four coal-fired plants owned by Public Power Corporation saw the Athens bourse benchmark hit a new five-month high on Tuesday. Blue chips rose despite the marginal drop for the banks index and the decline in turnover.

Last-minute profit taking during Tuesday's closing auctions at the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) inflicted minor losses on the benchmark after wiping out all of its earlier gains. However, the blue chip and banks indexes remained in positive territory, primarily thanks to Piraeus Bank's gains on the day.

Eurobank, Greece's third-largest lender by assets, said on Friday that its takeover of Grivalia Properties was given the green light by the European Union's competition authority because it meets state aid rules.

In November Eurobank agreed a 780-million-euro deal to buy Grivalia Properties to boost its capital and speed up the reduction of sour loans.

Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis warned on Wednesday in Parliament of the possibility that local banks may require a fresh capital injection that the Greek taxpayers could once again have to cover.

In doing so, he started to prepare citizens for the consequences of the upcoming plans for tackling nonperforming loans.

The proposal by the Bank of Greece to reduce bad loans through the use of deferred tax assets would allow lenders to channel both their provisions and their considerable capital reserves in the right direction, credit sector sources say.