Optima Bank

Today’s (7/29) session was a session of tight trading and lack of risk appetite on the Athens Stock Exchange, which returned to negative territory under the “weight” of dividend cuts, mainly from National Bank. Despite the losses, contact was maintained with 1,470 points, with the General Index closing off the daily lows.

The Greek stock market began Monday’s (29/7) session down, in a week that starts with the National Bank’s dividend cut, followed by crucial announcements on the results of heavyweight listed companies.

The Athens Stock Exchange returned to an upward “channel” and coordinated with the recovery effort of foreign stock markets, ending the three-day downward streak that preceded it.

Athens-listed lottery and sports betting company Intralot signed an agreement for the issue of a new bond loan agreement of up to 100 million euros and duration to June 30, 2025, it said on Thursday.

Greece's investment grade recovery, expected to reduce borrowing costs for businesses while opening the door to a larger investor audience, combined with the start of the ECB's rate-cutting cycle, is accelerating activity for listed companies, supporting new issues of corporate bonds and fresh listings on the Athens Stock Exchange.

The "big four" Greek banks - Alpha, Eurobank, National and Piraeus - posted impressive first-half results, analysts say, focusing on their strong profitability and its main underlying cause, interest and commission fees, but also the quality of their assets and their liquidity, which led all to adjust their end-year goals upward.

Optima Bank said its 2022 profits quadrupled to reach 42.4 million euros, with all figures (deposits, loans and profits) recording a big increase in the first months of 2023, the bank's management said during a general shareholders' meeting on Thursday.

The slowing pace of the Fed rate hikes and those that followed in Britain, Switzerland and Norway kept investors at bay on Thursday, though buyers edged out sellers at Athinon Avenue for price growth on low turnover. This time banks underperformed, but they are about to be joined soon by the new listing of Optima Bank in a rare injection of fresh blood in this section of the market.

Piraeus Securities topped the list of the most active securities firms on the Athens Stock Exchange in February, with a market share of 21.94% of transactions.

It was followed by Eurobank Securities with a market share of 17.52%, Euroxx (14.61%), National Securities (8.86%) and Alpha Finance (5.77%).