Galatsi

Thursday's session on the Athens Stock Exchange was even more subdued than recent days, if that is possible.

In the end, the general index, which had been showing mild losses throughout, tipped over into positive territory, closing at 637.27 points, a gain of 0.36%. Late gains in OTE Telecom were the main reason.

Turnover was €23.61 million on volume of 16,373,894 shares.

On a day when Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange remained closed, the Greek bourse secured a rather satisfactory turnover of almost 50 million euros on Monday, with traders opting to position themselves ahead of this Friday's upcoming index rebalancing. Leading the benchmark to strong gains were bank stocks, which were oversold in previous sessions.

The barrage of arson attacks across Attica at dawn Monday was centrally coordinated, according to the Hellenic Police (ELAS), which also cite a call posted on an anti-establishment website on May 15 for an escalation of attacks by anarchists.

Athens water utility EYDAP has been ordered not to cut off supply to indebted consumers following scenes of crowding outside its downtown regional headquarters.

April ended at the Greek stock market on Thursday with some profit taking by traders who cashed in on this week's rise by specific stocks such as banks. Despite that daily drop, April closed with a 12.54 percent advance for the benchmark, to become the first month this year with an increase for the bourse.

Despite Wednesday's early gains at Athinon Avenue, in line with most eurozone bourses, the session ended with a relatively small increase on particularly low daily turnover, which points to the market's reservations about the economy's emergence from the coronavirus crisis, especially as far as the creation of new nonperforming loans for Greek lenders is concerned.

Despite the pressure on banks at the Greek bourse on Tuesday that looked as though it might drag the benchmark lower still, most of the rest of the market posted healthy gains that saw the main index come off a four-year low, on improved turnover too.

Greek stocks on Tuesday reclaimed some of the ground lost in Monday's 8.3 percent slump, on very encouraging trading volume, with banks jumping by over 5 percent to cover almost half of the previous day's losses. 

Stocks in the Greek bourse were once again swayed by banks that dragged the market lower on Tuesday, accelerating the benchmark's decline toward the 900-point mark.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 911.82 points, shedding 0.86 percent from Monday's 919.77 points. The large-cap FTSE 25 index contracted 0.95 percent to 2,291.80 points.

Police in the northern Athens suburb of Agia Paraskevi arrested a 29-year-old colleague after he allegedly carried out two armed robberies, one at a gas station in the western suburb of Peristeri and the other at a kiosk in Galatsi, near central Athens, making off with 690 euros.