Greek Banks Extend Gains
Banks’ gains have been extended to 23.1% during last ten meetings, following their rise on Monday. Eurobank, Hellenic Postbank and Alpha Bank were on FTSE20’s top profits climbing by more than 3.7%, while the General Index fluctuated between profits and losses before ending in positive territory. Its gains for year to date amount to 9.53%.
The mild fluctuations of European indices, the narrowing of Greek bond spreads and the upgrade of Greek banks to neutral by Credit Suisse, were the main factors of Monday’s upward movement, according to analysts.
However, they state that despite the improved sentiment, the outcome of the forthcoming European Summit next week will be a critical factor for the market and they expect volatility to remain until then, while consolidation moves cannot be ruled out.
"At the moment there is still some limited positive momentum helping the index to consolidate and push slightly higher," says a senior local equity analyst. "However, volatility will continue to remain high as differing scenarios unfold on EU solutions to the Greek and periphery debt crisis," he adds.
Kyprou Securities remained cautious “following a full 15% total rise for the FTSE ASE 20 during the last 9 trading sessions,” according to its morning report.
“Although there are plenty of rumours, we have no specific official developments on the Greek debt on European level. Therefore, since valuations become less meaningful on the back of the excess Greek state debt crisis we are cautious for the overbought local market that reaches technical resistance levels”, Kyprou added.
Across the board, the General Index was shaped at 1548.65 units, recording a rise of 0.79%, limiting its early gains of 1.58%. Approximately 62.19mn units worth EUR 117.33mn were traded on Monday, while a total amount of 106 shares rose, 74 declined and 105 remained unchanged.
Banks had been rising by up to 2.16% before shaping at 1376.10, up 0.99%. Eurobank, Hellenic Postbank and Alpha Bank stood out, rising by 3.94%, 3.86% and 3.66% respectively. National Bank rose by 1.74%, while Piraeus Bank remained unchanged. On the other hand, Marfin Popular Bank and Bank of Cyprus declined by 3.57% and 1.28% respectively.
Across FTSE20, apart from banks, Motor Oil and OPAP posted solid gains of 3.29% and 2.72% respectively, while OTE, Ellaktor and Hellenic Petroleum rose by 1.26%, 1.11% and 0.63% respectively.
(capital.gr)