FTSE

Despite the fog hanging over the negotiations between the government and the country's creditors, investors threw caution to the wind on Wednesday and drove the Greek bourse benchmark closer to the 640-point mark. The robust performance of bank stocks pointed to traders betting on a positive outcome both for the Greek bailout review and Italy's banking crisis.

All in all it was a quiet session at the Greek bourse on Tuesday, as it seems quite a few investors decided to stay away and wait for news from the Euro Working Group. Most stocks posted small losses but the benchmark rose a tad after the closing auctions.

After Friday's unexpected gains, Greek stocks conceded some ground on Monday, with banks giving up the most. However, losses were contained significantly during the closing auctions, with Coca-Cola HBC, the market's biggest company by capitalization, posting a remarkable recovery in the last 15 minutes of trading.

In marked contrast to the cloud of uncertainty hanging over Greece's second bailout review, local stocks soared in the latter part of Friday's session, as investors put their money on a thaw in relations between the government and its creditors.

Investor jitters over relations between Athens and its creditors were evident at the Greek bourse again on Thursday, leading to more losses for most stocks.

The decision by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to freeze short-term measures to ease Greece's debt also froze buying interest in the local market, leading to losses for the majority of stocks on Wednesday, which may well continue into Thursday's session.

The perceived clash between the government and the International Monetary Fund and the distancing of the European Commission from the IMF's positions rattled nerves at the local stock market on Tuesday, although the resumption of talks with the creditors' representatives was a positive sign.

The Greek bourse began the week with mixed results at the end of the session as investors await the resumption of the bailout review. Stocks were split between winners and losers, but the benchmark was up at the close, having recovered all the day's losses in the closing auctions.

The Greek bourse benchmark finally cleared the 650-point level on Tuesday to record a new seven-month high, as the certainty of Greece finally meeting all the bailout review requirements pushed stock prices higher at the end of the session.

The notable growth recorded during Tuesday's trading session, which saw the benchmark climb above the 650-point mark for a few hours, was reversed by a late selling spree in banks, although the main index still ended the session with gains. Trading volume was particularly high, mainly thanks to the MSCI index rebalancing.