Leap in the Athens Stock Exchange with overperformance of banks

Of Eleftheria Kourtali

The Athens Stock Exchange started the week with a significant rise, following in the footsteps of European markets, as investors continue to follow developments on the geopolitical front, with the flow of news around the Ukrainian being the one that determines the daily course of shares. The Ukrainian president reiterated that his country is ready to negotiate its possible political neutrality as part of a peace deal with Russia.

The rise is so wide on the board of Athens Avenue, and concerns both high and medium capitalization with banking stocks outperforming, while the first goal of the General Index is to maintain it above 855 points, in order to strengthen the momentum .

However, as Nikos Kafkas, head of the analysis department at Depolas Investment Services, points out, the issue of high energy costs seems to have occupied the markets for some time. After all, the meeting on the issue at European level did not offer anything tangible at this stage. In this context, the continuation of the last upward movement may be called into question, intensifying volatility not only in the short term, as the profitability prospects of listed companies shrink. The estimated price range for the next sessions is limited, according to the analyst, increased within the range of 890-810 points.

Thus, in the statistics of the meeting, the General Index records an increase of 1.88% to 859 points, while the turnover stands at 8.9 million euros.

The index of high capitalization increased by 2.07% to 2,079.2 points, while with gains of 1.75% the index of medium capitalization moved to 1,481.88 points.

From the non-banking blue chips, Ellactor stands out with gains of 4.5%, followed by Aegean and EYDAP at + 3.17% and + 3.11% respectively, while an increase of more than 2% is recorded by Biochalko, EKLPE, Mytilineos , OPAP, Terna Energy and Quest. Jumbo and PPA record a small drop below 0.3%.

The banking index outperformed with an increase of 2.76% to 621.85 points with Alpha Bank moving at + 3.23%, the National Bank at + 3.02%, Eurobank at + 2.5% and Piraeus at + 1.83%.

The banker gives the trend

The banking sector is the one that really helped the General Index to leave behind the low of 790 points recorded earlier this month, which was a one-year low, and is expected to be the one that will set the trend in the next period and determine the return of the upward momentum.

The extremely positive is, according to market participants, that the Greek banking sector continues to receive positive messages from investment houses, despite the geopolitical shock, with target prices being set at significantly higher levels than currently on its board. Athens Avenue, thus being a strong support for the ATHEX. As HSBC, which maintains its overweight stance on Greek stocks, recently reiterated, a significant part of the Greek market story is related to banks.

In the ATHEX in general, during the technical analysis, as noted by the Stock Exchange Circle, the immediate recapture of the 855 points of the General Index is required in order to maintain the expectations for a short return to 900 points.

Essentially, the market owes a move, even a technical one, to the recent highs or the zone around 900, which has its essential resistances, notes Elias Zacharakis of Fast Finance. “We remind you that the closing of the month should find us over 854 units where, in case it happens, it will maintain its monthly buying signals”, as he adds. This week, there will be a new round of talks between Ukraine and Russia in a meeting to be held in Turkey. Certainly both sides will want to win at least in the eyes of public opinion, nevertheless geopolitically they will change a lot and with increased chances to see more new facts in the near future. Biden himself, who was the first to speak about the war with great confidence in a new statement, said that we are very close to the end. “It remains to be seen how long the joy of the markets will last in such a case, since from there it will be judged what we have to see in front of us”, concludes Mr. Zacharakis.