OTE TELECOM

Greek bank stocks suffered increased pressure on Tuesday, which also had a knock-on effect on other major blue chips, resulting in significant losses for all indexes at Athinon Avenue.

August ended with losses of 4.15 percent for the Greek stock market's benchmark, while banks fell over 14 percent, as Friday saw another session of decline albeit with the highest turnover of the last three months, mainly thanks to the rebalancing of the MSCI index.

JP Morgan has raised its target price for OTE telecom shares to 14.1 euros, expecting the Deutsche Telekom-owned company to expand further in the domestic market by adding to its broadband connection market share.

On Wednesday OTE's share price on the Athens stock market ended at 10.75 euros.

Scenarios of Greece returning to the capital markets are on the increase again following the meetings held by the top officials of the Finance Ministry and the Public Debt Management Agency in New York and Boston earlier this month.

Nevertheless, sources say that no decision has been made yet, with the PDMA closely monitoring developments in international markets.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) started the week with a particularly quiet session, featuring low trading volume and mild gains for the majority of stocks.

The ATHEX general index ended at 778.57 points, adding 0.23 percent to Friday's 776.77 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 0.16 percent to 2,047.58 points.

An Athens appeals court on Friday reduced to five years an eight-year prison sentence handed down to former PASOK minister Tasos Mandelis for money laundering and said it would allow him to pay off the fine.

After the four-day weekend the Greek bourse reopened on Tuesday in pretty much the same fashion as it ended last week, with early losses contained in the closing auctions - propped up largely by bank stocks - while turnover dropped to holiday season levels at what was the start of a three-day trading week.

A prosecutor on Monday proposed that former PASOK minister Tasos Mandelis be found guilty of money laundering in relation to the sum of 450,00 German Marks (about 230,000 euros) that he is alleged to have received from German company Siemens for securing an OTE Telecom contract in 1997.

Stocks at Athinon Avenue rose in a more uniform fashion on Tuesday, at one point sending the benchmark as high as the 800-point mark. However, the momentum didn't last, and the main index had slipped back down again by the closing.

Investors finally put an end to the Greek bourse benchmark's nine-session slide on Monday. The rise was led by bank and utility stocks, while mid-caps continued their descent. Trading volume was particularly low.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 790.05 points, adding 0.55 percent to Friday's 785.72 points.