Viohalco

A series of largely positive corporate results published on Thursday gave a fresh boost to the Greek stock market and offered the benchmark the chance to recover more of the ground lost in previous days. However, this price increase was recorded on significantly reduced daily turnover, the lowest of the last 13 sessions.

Global stock markets are under a wave of liquidations, with the geopolitical landscape clouded by the nuclear threat arising from the escalation of tensions in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Sellers ruled the roost once again at the Greek bourse on Monday, with the benchmark heading lower for the third day in a row. The ejection of former prime minister Antonis Samaras from ruling New Democracy and the permission Washington has apparently granted to Kyiv for using long-range missiles to hit Russia combined to apply fresh pressure on stock prices.

The rising sequence of five sessions came to an end for the benchmark of the Greek bourse on Thursday, though only by the smallest of margins. There were conflicting trends in the session, switching the course of the main index from positive to negative and back several times.

The Greek bourse recorded a third straight day of price decline on Wednesday, led by banks that suffered from the concerns reigning across Europe as the day of the US presidential election approaches and the prospect of a rapid decline in interest rates that could compromise banks' profits. Thursday will see the publication of the third-quarter data by Metlen.

Wednesday was another day of decline for the Greek bourse, led primarily by banks but spread across the board. However, a few blue chips bucked the trend and minimized the losses of the large-cap index. Liquidity in the market is clearly abundant, and turnover on the day topped 200 million euros, since traders felt they could ease off until bank stock prices return to lower levels.

– Greetings! Just when we were almost done with the PASOK crowd and thought we’d be bored with the government’s dull antics, bam, the SYRIZA people pop up to give us life and fodder for instant commentary. Kasselakis exploded in fury because, as EfSyn (a newspaper aligned with them) reported, some details from his declaration of assets came to light.

National Bank remains the focus of attention for traders at the Greek stock market, with 62% of Monday's bourse session turnover concerning the lender's stock. The rest of the market did not show any particular buying activity, and only Coca-Cola HBC helped with its large capitalization containing the decline of the benchmark on the day.

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.

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.