Piraeus Bank

The Greek stock market rebounded on Wednesday, driven mainly by Piraeus Bank and other lenders, but the daily turnover showed a significant decrease from the previous days, which is partly explained by the simultaneous reopening of a state bond.

A late rally at Athinon Avenue gave the benchmark of the Greek bourse fresh momentum on Thursday, allowing it to easily surpass the 1,400-point barrier and close the day on a high. Non-bank blue chips outperformed, boosting a market that continues to have very high daily turnover levels since the placement of Piraeus Bank shares last week.

The index rebalancing, the constant rally of stocks in recent weeks, the decline of Piraeus Bank (the protagonist of the past week) and the reservations investors showed in foreign markets contributed to a day of major losses at the Greek stock market on Monday, which brought the benchmark below the 1,400-point mark on unusually high turnover.

The Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) is one step before the complete divestment from Greece's four systemic banks, after the successful sale of all the shares it owned in Piraeus Bank.

Greece's bank bailout fund (HFSF) on Wednesday set the price for the sale of its 27% holding in Piraeus Bank at 4 euros per share, valuing the stake at €1.35 billion.

The sale, part of a wider re-privatization of Greek banks bailed out during the debt crisis, attracted strong demand and was more than eight times oversubscribed, a source told Reuters.

Stocks were evenly split between winners and losers at Wednesday's session in the Greek bourse, though the benchmark recovered half of the ground it had lost on Tuesday, all in the context of the completion of Piraeus Bank's share placement. This has absorbed a significant portion of the market's liquidity, not only this week but also in the previous couple of weeks.

The extra strong interest in the placement of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund's stake in Piraeus Bank, displayed from the first day, on Monday, has led to the sale of the entire holding of the state in the lender and at the top end of the price range, as offers exceeded 6 billion euros.

The placement of the state's stake in Piraeus Bank deservedly monopolized interest at Athinon Avenue on Monday, and the huge interest generated boosted the benchmark and most other stocks in the market that climbed to new 13-year highs.

Greek banks eye dividends on a par with the European average in the coming years, pointing to the high profitability fueled by higher interest rates and clearing their balance sheets of bad loans.

In anticipation of the Piraeus Bank placement next week, the Greek stock market had a rather quiet day on Friday, at the closing of another week of gains for the main index at Athinon Avenue, the sixth in a row. The blue chip index and that of banks headed lower on the day, while the majority of stocks and the mid-cap index ended up with gains.