Economic indicators

The banks index at Athinon Avenue enjoyed a second consecutive day of gains in excess of 4 percent on Friday, building not only on the advance of the Heracles plan for the securitization of bad loans, but also on the upward momentum observed in foreign stock markets. That also led to the benchmark attaining growth just shy of 2 percent.

The stock market's positive reaction to the European Commission's approval of the state's bad-loan reduction plan boosted bank stocks and helped the benchmark climb further during trading on Thursday at Athinon Avenue.

The treasury bill issue that recorded a negative yield for the first time in Greece's history dominated trading at the local stock market on Wednesday, with investors beginning to anticipate a credit rating upgrade for Greece coming sooner rather than later.

The main index of the Greek stock market continued to slide for a fourth consecutive day on Thursday, though not as dramatically as Wednesday's 3 percent drop. The morning's brief reaction to three days of losses gave way to another selling spree later in the day, leading the benchmark close to the 820-point mark.

The benchmark at Athinon Avenue again shied away from the 900-point level on Wednesday, only this time the pressure came from abroad, namely the increasing political uncertainty in Washington and London. Losses were significantly contained in the closing auctions, while Public Power Corporation made an outstanding comeback.

The blow dealt by the bankruptcy of UK tour operator Thomas Cook to the Greek economy was too big for traders at the local stock market to ignore on Monday, leading to significant losses for many stocks, albeit on rather low turnover.

September's triple-witching and the rebalancing of indexes led to the largest daily turnover on the Greek stock market in the last three-and-a-half months on Friday. This was sealed in the closing auctions, when the benchmark reverted to positive territory at the end of another week of gains.

The Greek stock market recovered somewhat on Wednesday after three days of losses thanks to a buying spree during the closing auctions that took the main indexes to the day's high amid a positive mood in most foreign markets.

The market's positive reaction to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' announcements at the weekend in Thessaloniki lasted for just a few minutes at Athinon Avenue on Monday, as traders chose to sell given that they had no fresh reasons for buying. Trading volume slumped to low levels again.

A mixed session at the bourse on Friday brought the first post-election week to a close with losses for the benchmark, while the market also used some of its cash availability to cover the bond issue by National Bank.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 858.33 points, shedding 0.58 percent from Thursday's 863.33 points. On a weekly basis it shrank 4.06 percent.