Banking rally led the ASE to 826 points after the ECB

Following a path of autonomy in relation to the European markets, the Athens stock exchange completed its fourth consecutive upward session, with the banking sector leading the way after the ECB’s announcements.

In particular, the General Index finished trading at 826.11 points with a significant increase of 1.32%, although for another session the turnover was quite low at 49.496 million euros with 22 million volume.

Large caps gained 1.87% to close at 1,985 points, mid-caps gained 0.77% to 1,332 points, while as mentioned above the banking sector was the star of the day with a 5% rally to 497.08 points .

The banking sector has been the big “burden” recently for the AXA, with the relative index moving to the lowest levels since February 2021. However, both S&P and Moody’s sent a “signal” in the previous days support for the prospects of Greek banks, offering significant breathers to the market.

Greek banks also showed a warmer welcome to the ECB’s more aggressive than expected rate hike of 50 basis points, sharply widening their gains after the decisions were announced.

The European Bank also today approved its new tool against eurozone fragmentation, the Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI), although the details it released appear to have left European markets cautiously cautious with controlled losses.

In any case, Christine Lagarde underlined that all eurozone countries will be eligible for the bank’s new tool, the terms of which will be based on data and existing analyzes and decisions of the Commission.

The head of the ECB also stated that inflationary risks appear to be worsening and that the economic outlook of the eurozone is deteriorating due to a number of factors, although as she pointed out the Bank’s estimates do not include a recession scenario for the time being.

In any case, the outlook for Greece at this stage looks positive, as the country has the conditions to register a new historical record in tourism that will help it erase part of the damage due to the war, while the tax revenues in the first half of the year outperformed .

As far as the market is concerned, however, analysts point out that in order for the AX to return to a sustainable uptrend, a move towards 830-840 points would have to take place, which would require a boost in trading activity.

According to Merit Securities, the long-term trend remains bearish with the 200-day exponential moving average at 869.19. Support points are 779 and 770 units and resistance points are 840 and 867 units.

On the dashboard

NGE and Eurobank were at the top of the high capitalization with an increase of 6% and 5.8% respectively, while closely followed by Alpha with +3.74% and Piraeus with +2.79%.

In the non-banking securities, PPC continued the strong upward trend of the last meetings with a new jump of 5.3%, Mytileneos recorded strong gains of 3.74%, Aegean closed at +2.6%, ADMIE and ELPE at +2, 46% and Sarantis at +2.27%.

The index-weighted OPAP added 1.37%, and ELVALHALCOR strengthened by 1.89%.

On the contrary, Quest closed with losses of 1.56%, Motor Oil lost 1.37%, Coca Cola 0.93%, Biohalco 0.87% and TERNA Energy 0.65%.

In the middle capitalization, Fourlis stood out with +3%, Plastic Thrace with +2.7% and HEXAE with +2.4%, while on the other hand Kri Kri closed with losses of 1.67%.