Athens Exchange

The serious geopolitical deterioration in the Middle East and its regional effect took their toll on prices at the Greek stock market on Tuesday, with gains being reversed to losses by the end of the session. More than a quarter of transactions concerned National Bank, with overall turnover in decline too, to the lowest point of the last nine sessions.

Demand for the 10% stake in the National Bank of Greece was covered approximately nine times on Monday, the first day that the offer book was opened, with the disposal of 91,471,515 shares out of the total of 168.2 million shares controlled by the public.

 The Greek stock market struggled to withstand international pressure, concluding the first session of October with a downward trend. The domestic market exhibited sluggish movement, with stabilization trends dominating as investors awaited the completion of the National Bank’s placement.

The placement of a 10% in National Bank of Greece dominated the interest of traders and outshone the bourse session on Monday. Therefore sellers increasingly played without an opponent at Athinon Avenue at the start of the week, with the benchmark losing a significant portion of its gains registered last week. Even so, September closed with monthly gains of 1.45%.

Demand for a 10% stake sale in the National Bank of Greece (NBG) by the country's bank bailout fund was oversubscribed by six times on Monday, in the first day of a book-building process which ends later this week, two sources told Reuters.

Greece's bank bailout fund HFSF began the process of selling a 10% stake in National Bank of Greece on Monday, marking the end of re-privatization of Greek lenders.

A week of significant growth for Greek stock prices ended with minor losses for the benchmark, thereby ending the upward streak of all four previous sessions. Traders resorted to cashing in on recent gains, but maintained turnover at satisfactory levels. Athinon Avenue is clearly anticipating the National Bank stake placement, expected next week.

Stock prices remained on the growth path for a fourth straight session on Thursday at Athinon Avenue, thanks to favorable international sentiment, the extra stimulus from the Chinese government to its economy, the upcoming sale of the state's 12% stake in National Bank and the release of positive corporate results.

The Greek stock market continued to rise, in anticipation of the concession of a 12% state stake in National Bank early next week, with the benchmark climbing to a new eight-week high, albeit with the lowest turnover of the last five sessions on Wednesday. 

The question now is whether Athinon Avenue can sustain the levels it has just risen to, over the next few days at least.

Greek stocks continued to ride the wave of satisfaction from the US interest rate cut, on top of which came the boosting measures China announced on Tuesday.