GEK Terna

The slight recovery of stock prices during the closing auctions on Thursday did not suffice to offset the losses of the Athens benchmark, which ended almost 1 percent lower. Banks were at the focus of selling interest again.

Stocks rose at Athinon Avenue for a third session in a row on Monday, contrary to the negative move recorded in most eurozone stock markets, but low turnover is making observers wary about the course of the week ahead.

The start of the new year on the Greek stock market gave traders little to cheer about, with the majority of stocks ending on the losing side and turnover failing even to make the 20-million-euro level, as the Athens bourse appeared to affected by the downbeat mood prevailing across most of Europe.

A year of losses ended on Monday at the Greek bourse on a high note, as the benchmark advanced by almost 10 points albeit on a very low turnover. However this has only marginally contained the loss of some 9 billion euros from the local market's capitalization in the course of 2018, when listed banks saw their value cut in half.

The decline on the Greek bourse that began last Friday continued on Wednesday while turnover remained low. Athinon Avenue appears to be heading in a whole other direction to the rest of the eurozone, which saw markets recover after the agreement between Brussels and Rome on the Italian budget.

The negative mood among domestic and foreign investors alike saw Greek stocks posting fresh losses at the start of the week, with the decline accelerating when European bourses headed south. The rather unexpected jump in Greek bond yields also contributed toward the stock drop.

Greek stocks lost all the gains registered earlier in the day and then some, completing a sixth consecutive southbound session for the benchmark at Athinon Avenue on Tuesday.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market posted its biggest daily rise in two-and-a-half years on Monday, riding on a wave of international relief resulting from the truce in the Sino-American trade war while dismissing any concern about the rebalancing of the MSCI index.

Oversold bank stocks staged a remarkable rebound in Thursday's bourse session, with Alpha and National announcing a return to profit in July-September at the end of the trading day. The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) was also buoyed by rallying international markets, the drop in Greek bond yields and a favorable report by Moody's on the Bank of Greece proposal for slashing bad loans.

Jitters over the upcoming rebalancing of the MSCI index and various domestic and international uncertainties were still in evidence on the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) on Wednesday. The picture that emerged pointed to quite negative medium-term prospects for Greek stocks should traders' fears of instability abroad materialize.