ATHEX: Banks help benchmark post gains

The Greek stock market opened the new week with a moderate advance for its main index that was mostly to be attributed to the growth of bank stock prices. On the contrary, the majority of stocks and the mid-cap index closed with a decline despite the very positive start to the day. Turnover was even lower than Friday's owing to the bank holiday in the US and the UK.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,481.23 points, adding 0.24% to Friday's 1,477.69 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 0.54%, ending at 3,600.40 points, though mid-caps contracted 0.41%.

The banks index improved 1.59%, on National grabbing 2.34%, Eurobank rising 1.87%, Alpha climbing 1.06% and Piraeus collecting 0.50%. Cenergy Holdings dropped 4.31%, Quest Holdings shrank 2.91%, Coca-Cola HBC lost 2.22% and Aegean gave up 2.10%, while OTE fetched 2.98%.

In total 46...