‘Cheap’ rise in the Stock Market

of Alexandra Tombra

Another step towards the upward breaking of the resistances was taken today by the Athens stock exchange, which managed to keep its gains stable almost throughout the session in an environment of low turnover.

In particular, the general index closed with an increase of 1.21% at 804.24 points, while today it moved between 804.78 points (+1.28%) and 798.14 points (+0.44%). The turnover amounted to 29.24 million euros and the volume to 11.90 million pieces, while 25 thousand pieces were traded through pre-agreed transactions.

The high capitalization index closed with an increase of 1.13%, at 1,917.52 points, while the Mid Cap ended trading at +1.82% and at 1,326.65 points. The banking index closed with a rise of 2.31% to 459.54 points.

In the last ten days, the market has maintained a sideways movement between 780 – 800 units, with the turnover, however, decreasing, in view of the open fronts that Europe has in front of it. The first is the meeting of the European Central Bank on Thursday, on the same day Europe will learn about Russia’s intentions regarding the supply of natural gas through the Nord Stream pipeline.

It is not certain which of the two fronts will affect Greece more, with that of the ECB being more marked on the board of the L. of Athens. The ECB will raise interest rates, likely by a move of 25 basis points, and announce further data on the new anti-fragmentation tool. It is recalled here that the ECB Governing Council has decided that the new ECB tool will be designed to avoid “non-fundamental fragmentation risk” and entail flexibility in how markets are allocated.

“If the spreads in some countries respond in a quick and disorderly way to interest rate increases, beyond what economic fundamentals would justify”, this would essentially be the “signal” to activate the new tool, the head has clarified of the ECB, Christine Lagarde.

According to Ilias Zacharakis of Fast Finance, it is a given that the ECB will be forced to intervene in the bond market since the yields had reached very high levels significantly affecting the real economy. The yield, for example, on the Greek 10-year bond has already reached 3.5%, recalling that it had climbed up to 4.5%. It seems that in a large part of Europe we have political reshuffles and we will see even more in the near future. Nevertheless, the ECB, apart from the new cycle of interest rate hikes, will do whatever it takes to not jeopardize the stability of the European edifice, adds Mr. Zacharakis.

On the dashboard

On the board now, Eurobank, Aegean, Quest and Ethniki recorded gains that exceeded 3%, while ADMIE and OTE were up more than 2%. The profits of Jumbo, Titan, Coca Cola, Motor Oil, ELHA, Ellinika΄Petrelia and Piraeus exceeded 1%.

PPC, GEK Terna, Alpha Bank, Mytileneos, Lambda, Viochalko, PPA and Ellactor closed slightly higher, with Sarantis unchanged. On the other hand, losses were small in EYDAP and Terna Energy, while OPAP closed at -2.40%.