The Stock Exchange is steadily rising after the decision of the ECB

Her Eleftherias Kourtali

The Athens Stock Exchange is moving steadily upwards, with bank shares outperforming, following the steps of international markets, following the decisions of the Fed, but also the decisions of the ECB, the Bank of England and the central bank of Norway today … “Super Thursday “(” Super Thursday) as analysts call it.

The ECB announced a continuation of the quantitative easing after the end of the PEPP with temporarily increased markets under the APP, while sending a strong signal for clear support of Greece, while the BoE and the Bank of Norway announced an increase in interest rates. Yesterday, the Fed doubled its tapering rate to $ 30 billion a month and sees three interest rate hikes in 2022 and a total of six interest rate hikes by the end of 2023.

The Greek stock market has not managed to exceed 900 points in recent days, refuting those who speculated that the upward movement will continue, despite the positive assessments of international companies for growth in Greece, but also the positive prospects of Greek banks which are preparing for a new a start that will be characterized by the increased credit expansion following the drastic consolidation of the red loans of the past.

Receiving a signal from the European markets today, the ATHEX is moving upwards, however, as Nikos Kafkas, head of the analysis department of Depolas Investments points out, this does not mean that we are complacent about the falling risks for the next period. .

In terms of meeting statistics, the General Index recorded an increase of 0.82% to 890.48 points, while the turnover stood at 27.5 million euros and the volume at 9.8 million.

According to the technical analysis, the first strong support for the General Index is the area of ​​860 points, while the resistance point is located at 900 points.

The index of high capitalization increased by 0.89% to 2,138.51 points, while the index of medium capitalization increased by 0.78% to 1,488.06 points.

The banking index outperformed with gains of 1.67% at 574.87 points, with Alpha Bank at + 1.58%, Eurobank at + 2.26%, Piraeus Bank at + 0.77% and the National Bank at + 2.01%.

In non-bank blue chips profits of more than 3% are recorded by Viohalco, followed by an increase of more than 2% ELVALHalkor and more than 1% ELPE, EYDAP and Lamda Development.

The Fed signal and the ECB stance

The US Federal Reserve yesterday signaled the long-awaited end of its monetary stimulus next year, but gave an otherwise optimistic economic outlook, which boosted investor sentiment. The Fed presented a scenario in which the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the Omicron variant, gives way to a favorable set of economic conditions, with inflation falling sharply on its own, interest rates rising slowly and the unemployment rate to remain low in the future. years.

“The economy no longer needs increasing amounts of policy support,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told a news conference after the two-day policy meeting.

According to analysts, Powell was certainly optimistic and the market may have been inspired by his views – they seem to have created a dynamic attitude towards risk assets. After all, as they point out, the Fed is the regulator of market prices and influences everything.

The baton passed to the ECB, which is particularly concerned with the ATHEX as it solved the riddle of how to support Greece and Greek bonds to avoid fragmentation in the eurozone after the end of the PEPP. Compared to other major central banks such as the Fed and the Bank of England, which are responding to the spike in inflation by accelerating the end of bond markets and preparing the ground for interest rate hikes, the ECB is much softer in its stance. way that it will continue to buy bonds throughout the next year.

In this context, the ECB’s “answer” is to increase the monthly purchases of the regular quantitative easing program, while leaving open the option of reactivating PEPP if necessary, using the remaining € 100 billion and – most importantly – as far as Greece is concerned – extends the duration of the reinvestment program until the end of 2024, but also enhances its flexibility by using the funds from the PEPP bonds that expire with a clear emphasis on Greece, as he stressed in the announcement.