FTSE

The blow dealt by the bankruptcy of UK tour operator Thomas Cook to the Greek economy was too big for traders at the local stock market to ignore on Monday, leading to significant losses for many stocks, albeit on rather low turnover.

September's triple-witching and the rebalancing of indexes led to the largest daily turnover on the Greek stock market in the last three-and-a-half months on Friday. This was sealed in the closing auctions, when the benchmark reverted to positive territory at the end of another week of gains.

Athinon Avenue presented a mixed picture on Thursday, swinging back and forth between negative and positive territory before the benchmark finally ended only just in the black while losing stocks edged out the gainers by just one.

The containment of the rise in global oil rates and the new all-time low in the 10-year Greek bond yield spurred local stocks to a notable rise on Wednesday, with a remarkable increase in trading volume too.

Greece's bourse index came down from a six-week high to record moderate losses on Tuesday, but listed companies are mainly focused on the two-day London roadshow they are launching on Wednesday, with the participation of Finance Minister Christos Staikouras on Thursday. That may also explain the fresh slump in turnover on Tuesday.

The Greek stock market shook off international concerns regarding oil prices and a US-Iran standoff and posted some healthy gains in the second half of the week's first session, on improved trading volume too.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market contained its weekly losses on Friday, but failed to avert its first week in the red after three weeks of gains. Friday's Eurogroup offered traders nothing new in the way of fresh momentum, as it is a widely shared view that the primary surplus targets can only be tweaked after 2020, as European Stability Mechanism head Klaus Regling conceded.

Unimpressed by the announcements of European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, traders on the Greek bourse put fresh pressure on stock prices on Thursday, with banks ending the rising course observed over the previous couple of days, in line with most other European markets. The local market appears unhappy with the various announcements about share capital increases.

The Greek stock market recovered somewhat on Wednesday after three days of losses thanks to a buying spree during the closing auctions that took the main indexes to the day's high amid a positive mood in most foreign markets.

With no tangible corporate news to help Greek stocks regain their momentum of previous weeks and months, the benchmark continued its downward course on Tuesday, and the psychologically important 900-point level appears impenetrable for the time being.