FTSE

Many investors opted to sit out Thursday's trading session at Athinon Avenue ahead of Friday night's verdict by Fitch on Greece's rating and outlook, with sellers putting an end to the benchmark's seven-session rising streak.

Despite the slight drop of the banks index on Wednesday, the benchmark and the majority of stocks on the Greek bourse continued their rise, led by mid-caps, albeit at a slower pace than in previous days. This has taken the main index to another five-year record high after the seventh straight day of gains.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market continued its course toward the 1,000-point mark with a sixth consecutive session of moderate gains on Tuesday, largely thanks to the closing auctions, which offset all the morning losses and split stocks down the middle between winners and losers.

The fifth consecutive session of moderate growth for the Greek bourse saw the benchmark advance to a new five-year high, as it climbed to levels unseen since December 2014.

Friday's bourse session was much like Thursday's, with a mild increase for the majority of stocks as the benchmark climbed to levels unseen since February 2015. This sedate growth is slowly convincing observers that the main index may well capture the 1,000-point level in the coming months.

The Greek bourse saw another day of mild gains on Thursday despite the drop in buyers' interest. Rising stocks outnumbered the losers two-to-one and the benchmark inched higher once again, shaking off the impact of the OPAP dividend cut.

The positive views on the Greek economy and its banks by various foreign firms, including rating agency DBRS Morningstar, continue to feed traders' buying interest, which is also trickling down to mid- and small-caps. This carried the benchmark through to another day of growth on Wednesday, on higher trading volume too thanks to a number of packages that changed hands.

The Greek bourse on Tuesday recovered the ground it had lost on Monday but for the time being it appears unable to secure the boost required to reach the psychologically important level of 1,000 points. Turnover also improved.

After hovering around Friday's closing level for most of the trading session on Monday, the stock benchmark at Athinon Avenue slipped below 920 points in the last hour-and-a-half, with blue chips such as banks experiencing selling action in the late afternoon.

The rise of Coca-Cola HBC's stock by 1.95 percent on Friday contained the Greek benchmark's losses somewhat and kept the blue chip index above water at the end of a week of small gains for the local market.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 923.63 points, shedding 0.26 percent from Thursday's 926.06 points. On a weekly basis it improved 0.38 percent.