The Stock Exchange held 890 units

The Athens stock exchange put its pressures under partial control at the end of the session, saving the levels of 890 units, despite the cautious international climate and the concerns caused by the political processes.

In particular, the general index closed with a fall of 0.27% at 893.74 points, while today it moved between 895.76 points (-0.04%) and 888.57 points (-0.84%). The turnover amounted to 33.90 million euros and the volume to 11.23 million pieces, while 197.77 thousand pieces were traded through pre-agreed transactions.

The high-cap index closed down 0.30% at 2,158.35 points, while the Mid Cap closed +0.01% at 1,398.53 points. The banking index closed down 0.51% at 586.29 points.

For the week, the broad index lost 0.60% and the FTSE 25 fell 0.86%. The bank index fell 1.48% in the five-day period.

Resistance to adverse conditions

August exceeded the initial expectations of a quiet stock market month with limited transactions without much news, comments M. Hatzidakis of Beta Securities. It appears that the “beneficial” window of interest rate hiatus from the end of July to September provided an opportunity to complete some acquisition ventures or receive half-year results without the noise of other external factors both inside and outside the walls.

The fact is that the domestic market fared better than the height of the circumstances given the galloping price of natural gas and the sharp upward trends in the wholesale power price on the Energy Exchange. Tourist inflows are supporting the state’s revenues this year, arrivals in the peak summer months are moving higher (5-7%) than the record period of 2019, dispersing significant liquidity both geographically and in a large number of key economic sectors of activity.

At the same time, the corporate profitability announced so far and the burgeoning business developments kept interest high in the Stock Exchange, always respecting the seasonal proportions presented by August. Without ignoring the influence of the external environment, it seems that this year for some industries can drastically change their stock market behavior for the better, highlighting them as all-weather options.

This differentiation is not a vague concept but it “steps” on corporate profitability and historically high performance, in dividends and foreign exchange valuation indices. The announcement of the half-year results and the analysis of the outlook for the rest of the year have made these cases completely distinct.

Technical picture

Technically, the General Index remains in a bullish market despite the inability to break the 900 points. The pace has changed as the last few sessions have seen small range movements with a characteristic feature of the buyers’ mobilization towards the close of the day. The safe distance from the 200-day moving average leaves room to lock in profits from the previous two-month rally without breaking the chart.

Although the oscillators have unloaded from the overbought price zones the time frames of the buyers are starting to narrow as the rising 30 and 50 day moving averages start to approach the market trading levels. However, the accumulation plateau is still not broken in any direction, 900 units is the obvious resistance while on the contrary 850 units is the first mound of price support. For the coming week, the chances for the direction of the trend seem divided, with the buyers still having the technical signals in their favor with clearly less momentum than the previous weeks, concludes Mr. Hatzidakis.

On the dashboard

On the board now, Coca Cola, PPC, Lambda, ADMIE and Alpha Bank recorded losses of more than 1%, while EYDAP, ELHA, Ethniki, Piraeus, Sarantis, OTE, Terna Energy and PPA closed slightly down.

In contrast, Quest jumped 4.19%, with Motor Oil and Ellator following with gains of 1.9% each. Titan, Mytileneos, GEK Terna, Jumbo, OPAP, Hellenic Petroleum and Eurobank closed slightly higher. Aegean and Viohalko closed unchanged.