EYDAP

Bank stocks continued their advance on Tuesday, while investor attention was focused on the benchmark bond issue, but non-banking stocks dragged the main index lower at the start of this four-day trading week at Athinon Avenue.

On a day when Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange remained closed, the Greek bourse secured a rather satisfactory turnover of almost 50 million euros on Monday, with traders opting to position themselves ahead of this Friday's upcoming index rebalancing. Leading the benchmark to strong gains were bank stocks, which were oversold in previous sessions.

The majority of stock prices recovered from early lows on Wednesday to end the session with gains. However, banks failed to stage a recovery, as buyers appeared more interested in specific blue chips outside the credit sector, such as energy stocks. 

Athens water utility EYDAP has been ordered not to cut off supply to indebted consumers following scenes of crowding outside its downtown regional headquarters.

April ended at the Greek stock market on Thursday with some profit taking by traders who cashed in on this week's rise by specific stocks such as banks. Despite that daily drop, April closed with a 12.54 percent advance for the benchmark, to become the first month this year with an increase for the bourse.

Despite Wednesday's early gains at Athinon Avenue, in line with most eurozone bourses, the session ended with a relatively small increase on particularly low daily turnover, which points to the market's reservations about the economy's emergence from the coronavirus crisis, especially as far as the creation of new nonperforming loans for Greek lenders is concerned.

The Thessaloniki Water & Sewerage Company (EYATH) has urged people not to flush disposable plastic gloves, masks and wet wipes down the toilet as they could cause extensive damage to the city's sewage network.

Despite the pressure on banks at the Greek bourse on Tuesday that looked as though it might drag the benchmark lower still, most of the rest of the market posted healthy gains that saw the main index come off a four-year low, on improved turnover too.

Greek stocks on Tuesday reclaimed some of the ground lost in Monday's 8.3 percent slump, on very encouraging trading volume, with banks jumping by over 5 percent to cover almost half of the previous day's losses. 

Stocks in the Greek bourse were once again swayed by banks that dragged the market lower on Tuesday, accelerating the benchmark's decline toward the 900-point mark.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 911.82 points, shedding 0.86 percent from Monday's 919.77 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index contracted 0.95 percent to 2,291.80 points.