Ellaktor

The Capital Market Commission's report showing foreign funds maintaining their short positions in local bank stocks resulted in a notable decline for the credit sector at the start of the week. However, non-bank blue chips managed to push the benchmark into positive territory at the end of the session despite the bank sector slump.

The rising streak on the Greek bourse was interrupted on Thursday by profit-taking from investors, who led the benchmark and blue chips south after five sessions of growth, although mid- and small-caps enjoyed gains.

Bank stocks on Wednesday built on Tuesday's momentum to jump more than 5 percent on a day with a more respectable turnover at the local stock market. This was the fifth straight day of advance for the benchmark at Athinon Avenue, a record unseen in the last eight months.

Prices continued to rise over the course of the day on the Greek stock market on Friday, for the benchmark to close the three-session week with an increase that was just shy of 2 percent, even if that was on a holiday turnover level. The healthy gains were in line with the positive performance of most foreign markets.

Listed group Ellaktor - under the new management that took over last summer - is moving ahead with the first strategic step in the reorganization of its corporate structure.

The construction conglomerate has decided to fully absorb its Anemos subsidiary, which is active in the sector of renewable energy sources, mainly wind parks.

Members of the self-styled anarchist group Rouvikonas threw flyers at the premises of construction company Ellaktor in northern Athens on Friday morning to protest the construction of a landfill in Corfu.

In a post on the anarchist Indymedia website, Rouvikonas said the landfill in the area of Lefkimi, Corfu, is within walking distance from a residential area.

The relegation of National Bank, Eurobank and Piraeus Bank from the MSCI Standard index for emerging markets into the MSCI Small Cap Index, from which Ellaktor has also been removed, had a significant impact on Wednesday's trading session at Athinon Avenue, hurting the prices not only of bank stocks but other sectors too.

The Piraeus Group is said to have received a bid worth 50 million euros for its 9.8 percent stake in the consortium that operates the Attiki Odos ring road around the Greek capital.

Following months of hard work, Piraeus Bank seems to have secured a proposal by the Davidson Kempner private equity fund.

The Ellaktor tug-of-war between brothers Dimitris and Anastasios Kallitsantsis on the one side and Leonidas Bobolas and Dimitris Koutras on the other ended after a month and a half on Wednesday, with the proposal by the Kallitsantsis brothers' Change4Ellaktor initiative emerging victorious from the construction company's general meeting.

Construction sector experts speak of a handout of 250-300 million euros to Attiki Odos SA's shareholders, due to the upcoming confirmation of Infrastructure Minister Christos Spirtzis's decision to approve a two-year extension to the concession contract for the operation of the capital's homonymous ring road.