Terna Group

The Greek bourse wrapped up another week of gains on Friday, with the benchmark at a nine-month high. Still, trading volume eased and the positive momentum appears to have slowed.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 765.67 points, adding 0.20 percent to Thursday's 764.13 points. It rose for a third consecutive week, by 1.49 percent.

The bond issue clearly stole the limelight away from the local bourse on Tuesday, with investors focusing on the course of the 10-year note instead of buying Greek stocks, and sellers sending the benchmark back below 700 points.

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.

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.

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.

Liquidity in Greece needs to be strengthened by the inflow of capital from abroad - amounting to some 20 billion euros per year - as domestic savings will not suffice, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) warns in its weekly bulletin.