Triple witching hour

Friday's session at the Greek bourse proved to be a bull trap, as after the halfway point the early gains swung to losses and the majority of stocks closed the week with a significant drop - in line with the fall of the Credit Suisse stock in Zurich - in what was the second straight week of prices shrinking at Athinon Avenue.

Thursday's bourse session was relatively quiet ahead of Friday's triple witching, with some selective profit-taking among blue chips. Stocks were split between winners and losers, with banks showing some significant fluctuations before settling for moderate losses.

Worries about local banks possibly having to undergo asset quality reviews - as the International Monetary Fund is again insisting - as well as the September triple witching, sent stocks tumbling and turnover soaring in the last session of the week at the Greek stock exchange.

Friday’s June triple witching and a sudden interest expressed by foreign buyers in the week’s very last hour of trading took the Greek bourse’s benchmark above 1,300 points and its weekly gains close to 3 percent.