GEK Terna

Energy stocks led the way and banks recovered in time to help the benchmark revert to gains in Wednesday's session at Athinon Avenue and end near the day's high, albeit on the lowest daily turnover this week.

Last-minute profit taking during Tuesday's closing auctions at the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) inflicted minor losses on the benchmark after wiping out all of its earlier gains. However, the blue chip and banks indexes remained in positive territory, primarily thanks to Piraeus Bank's gains on the day.

Greek stocks presented a mixed picture after Wednesday's session, as a slight majority of stocks as well as the mid-cap and small-cap indexes headed lower, but the benchmark and blue chips continued to rise.

Stock prices at Athinon Avenue went from losses to gains over the course of Monday's session as the few active investors continue to believe the local bourse is underpriced after the successful bond issue a week ago. This helped the benchmark climb to a two-month high, even though that was on particularly low turnover.

The Public Power Corporation tender for the concession of the lignite plants at Meliti and Megalopoli has ended in failure, as was expected.

The PPC board rejected Mytilineos SA's bid for the Meliti plants on Friday, as well as the below-par offer by the Sev.en Energy-GEK Terna consortium for the entire portfolio that PPC is selling.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market closed at the day's low on Wednesday but still managed to hold on to a sliver of gains in the face of the blue chip index's marginal slide as mid-caps propped up the market. Turnover was the highest so far this week.

The anticipated reduction of Piraeus Bank's capital adequacy requirements as set by the European Central Bank served on Monday to boost the bank stock that has suffered the most in recent months - and with it the rest of the bourse - although trading volume was again disappointingly low.

On a good day for the Greek bond market, local stocks rallied at the end of the trading session on Tuesday to notch up enough gains to send the benchmark higher. Former state companies were at the focus of buying interest.

Athens urban rail transport company STASY is part of one of the six major consortiums to be short-listed for the second stage of the tender for the operation and maintenance of Jerusalem's light rail system.

The closing auctions saved the day for the Greek stock market's benchmark once again on Friday, leading to the highest daily turnover in 30 sessions. The banks index also ended its six-day losing streak, during which it had shrunk by almost 20 percent.