FTSE

Imported concerns about the US-Chinese trade negotiations weighed on the Greek stock market on Wednesday, on the back of the release of Alpha Bank's third-quarter results on Tuesday and ahead of Thursday's results by National and Eurobank.

The main index at Athinon Avenue edged even closer to the elusive milestone of 900 points on Tuesday, with positive reports fueling the growth of bank stock prices and other blue chips.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 893.37 points, adding 0.57 percent to Monday's 888.29 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index expanded 0.42 percent to 2,232.79 points.

Blue chips got off to a good start on Monday morning in Athens, but the bulk of those gains had evaporated by the end of trade and the majority of stocks ended up in negative territory.

The Greek bourse index came off a four-month high on Friday as traders cashed in some of this week's gains, European stock markets appeared reserved and Greek bond yields continued their ascent to top 1.50 percentage points.

The Greek stock market enjoyed a day of solid gains on Thursday, with banks and Coca-Cola recording considerable growth and trading volume confirming that Athinon Avenue enjoyed wider investor interest than usual. Thursday's growth added a remarkable 1.2 billion euros to the bourse's capitalization.

Non-bank blue chips led Greek stocks in a moderate advanceon Wednesday, while banks swung both ways before settling for minor gains at the end of the session, with rising stocks outnumbering the losers.

Developments in the banking sector, mainly regarding nonperforming loans, gave bank stocks at Athinon Avenue a significant boost on Tuesday as buyers made a comeback, bolstering the bourse benchmark in the process and taking daily turnover back above the 50-million-euro level.

Greek stocks retained on Monday their southbound course set last week, with the benchmark losing just over 1 percent and trading volume remaining low, following the warning by Moody's that the global economy appears headed toward a slowdown.

As daily turnover at Athinon Avenue fell to its lowest in a month on Friday, stocks reverted to a downward course, partly due to the absence of any changes in the MSCI Greece index as expected on Thursday, along with the rise in Greek bond yields.

Bank stocks staged a full recovery on Thursday to take the benchmark higher for the first time this month, in line with the rise recorded in international markets. The credit sector closed near the day's high, although turnover was lower than in previous days.