Terna Group

Greece will not go ahead with privatizing its dominant electricity utility PPC or power grid operator ADMIE, Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said, despite promising its creditors not to halt sales that are underway.

The stock market regained its composure somewhat after Parliament’s widely anticipated failure to elect a new president and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s announcement of general elections next month, as losses of up to 11 percent in afternoon trade were reduced to less than 4 percent by the end of the first session after Christmas.

The Greek bourse reacted calmly on Tuesday to the result of the presidential vote in Parliament, which while seeing a rise in support for the government’s candidate was still some way off the result required in next Monday’s third and final vote. The majority of stocks posted small losses on a day of poor turnover ahead of the Christmas recess.

York Global Finance Offshore BDH (Luxembourg) S.a.r.I. announced the acquisition of another 5,133,174 shares in blue chip Terna Energy on Thursday in a non-bourse transaction amounting to a 4.70 percent stake in the Athens-listed company.

The share purchase has seen York Global’s stake in the Greek energy firm climb to 7.70 percent,corresponding to 8,412,606 shares.

The local stock market saw little reason to buy into Friday’s news of the country’s official return to growth, with the weak momentum abating but taking the benchmark just over 890 points while trading volume ended at the lowest level of the last seven sessions.

The Greek bourse bucked the trend set by most other European stock markets on Monday, enjoying healthy gains, albeit on thin turnover.

With the third-quarter results edging closer for most listed companies, observers consider encouraging the fact that the benchmark closed the session on the day’s high.