Terna Group

The pattern of one losing session in every six continued at the Athens bourse on Wednesday as the benchmark posted a small decline with the morning losses contained over the course of the day. The volatile session saw an increase in turnover above the 70-million-euro mark.

If its first session for the year is anything to go by, the Greek stock market can expect a great 2018, as its benchmark added 2 percent on Tuesday to its closing for 2017, reaching a new four-month high. Led by Piraeus Bank, the local bourse bucked the trend seen in the eurozone at the start of the year.

A late surge by Greek stocks on Tuesday offset the losses racked up earlier in the session, leaving a balanced picture at the end of trade as the benchmark rose for a fifth session in a row. However, the continued slide in trading volume has dimmed the prospects of a "year-end rally."

The continued drop in sovereign bond yields and the growing effort to dress up portfolios before year-end saw the majority of stocks chalking up more gains on Friday, when trading surpassed the 100-million-euro mark for a second day. The banks index has now covered all of this year's losses.

The drop in Greek bond yields and window dressing efforts in the approach to year-end contributed to a healthy rise in stock prices at Athinon Avenue on Wednesday, while two package transactions for Eurobank and Grivalia Properties sent trading volume soaring.

As the year starts to draw to a close many funds have either stopped trading their securities or are engaging in some window dressing, boosting their performance. This serves to explain the growth seen on the local bourse on Friday, after progress in the third review had already been priced in.

Two groups have expressed an interest in the first stage of the tender by Gaiaose for the utilization of the 670,000-square meter plot the railway property company controls at the old Gonou military camp in western Thessaloniki.

The tourist revenue that will be generated this year will be between 14 and 14,3 billion Euros according to SETE Intelligence’s estimates. This was included the announcement by the Bank of Greece for the eight-month tourist season, including August, the most critical month for Greek tourism.

Aktor was hit on Thursday with a 38.5-million-euro fine - a record in Greece - and another nine construction companies were fined, for a total of 80.7 million euros, concluding the first stage of the infamous case of the "contractors' cartel" which, for a period of 23 years, from 1989 to 2012, were found to have been rigging the tenders for a series of public works, including those co-funded by

Public Power Corporation (PPC), Greece's dominant power utility, sees core profit of around 700 million euros this year, down from about 1 billion euros in 2016, its chairman said on Friday.