Index

Morning gains turned to afternoon losses for Greek stocks on Tuesday, as the benchmark dropped below the 900-point mark while National Bank’s stock dropped to a historic low of 1.71 euros per share.

The trading week in Greece got off to another southbound start, with the benchmark sliding by as much as 2.5 percent midsession before climbing again and containing losses to just over 1 percent. It appears that the bears are getting settled at Athinon Avenue and won’t be moving until the political landscape clears.

The Athens stock market posted gains on Thursday, in line with most of its international peers and stretching its rising streak to five sessions on slightly improved turnover.

A fourth consecutive day of gains for stocks took the main index closer to the 1,000-point mark, but trading volume dipped anew. Expectations of something significant coming out of the Eurogroup meeting or Thursday’s statement by the European Central Bank helped prop up the benchmark in the latter half of the day.

The Greek bourse bucked the trend set by most other European stock markets on Monday, enjoying healthy gains, albeit on thin turnover.

With the third-quarter results edging closer for most listed companies, observers consider encouraging the fact that the benchmark closed the session on the day’s high.

The local bourse lost about one-seventh of its capitalization in October as the benchmark declined 13.73 percent within the month despite Friday’s gains of almost 1 percent.

Local lenders continued to drag the Greek bourse lower on Thursday, with the banks index down 10 percent at one point before ending with daily losses of 5.06 percent, based on fears that shareholders will see their stakes shrink if lenders proceed to share capital increases.

Concerns that local banks are planning to resort to fresh share capital increases without the participation of old shareholders – in a bid to reduce the stakes that the bank bailout fund currently holds in them – led Greek credit sector stocks lower on Wednesday, as the elation at the stress test results has all but worn off. The rest of the market followed suit, despite a promising start.

The market price index of dwellings for Q3 2014 compared to Q2 2014 was 99.9%, i.e. the average decrease of the market prices of dwellings was 0.1%, according to Bulgaria's Statistical Institute.

The consumer price index in September compared to August was 99.8%, i.e. the monthly inflation was-0.2%, the latest data revealed by Bulgaria's National Statistical Institute shows.

...