LAST UPDATE 14:10
by Manos Hachladakis
With buyers prevailing state by state and banks making a convincing comeback, the Athens market has not only regained the psychological milestone of 1,400 but is also moving significantly higher, at a time when the investment climate is showing recovery trends worldwide as geopolitical tension subsides in the Middle East.
In particular, the General Index moves to 1,415 units with gains of 1.6% and the turnover to 49 million euros, while 9.8 million pieces have been traded.
The banking index is up 2% at 1,1203 points, the FTSE is up 1.78% at 3,438 points, as is the FTSEM mid-cap +1.27% at 2,288 points.
After a four-day losing streak that escalated early last week amid tensions between Iran and Israel, with the market falling sharply away from recent 13-year highs, the critical 1360 technical support zone not only confirmed but gave upward reaction with 3×3 positive sessions, the last 2 with notable gains (+1.16% and +0.8%).
Friday’s rise came at a time when the indices in the US, Europe and Asia were all showing downward trends, with the Athens Avenue initially putting a ramp to the pressures and finally finishing at highs of the day.
Even more, at the end of the day in the evening came Standard & Poor’s which maintained the BBB- rating for the Greek bond but upgraded the outlook of the Greek market to positive from stable, possibly giving another argument to the buyers at the moment.
In addition, during the day came the positive surprise from ELSTAT, with the primary surplus at 1.9% of GDP in 2023, significantly higher than the official forecast (1.1%), giving further impetus to Athens L. which is now strongly outperforming against of European indicators.
On the dashboard
In today’s movements, PPC and Mytileneos continue with the speed acquired since Friday with an increase of about 1.9% both, with OTE next to them at +2.3%, OPAP at +1.4% and Jumbo at +1.8%.
However, after three days of blue chips bearing the brunt of the recovery from the correction, the highlight of the day is the return of banks to their familiar leading role.
Piraeus at +2.5%, Eurobank at +2.4%, Ethniki at +1.45% and Alpha at +1.4%.
In other respects, Aegean scores a strong 2.9% and is at the top of the FTSE, while ELVALHALCOR, Titanas and Lambda are still strengthening by 2%.
Indicative of the climate, only Autohellas with a -4.4% loss in high capitalization and this because as of today it trades without the right to a dividend of 0.7 euros per share, and Viohalco at -0.3%.
In mid-caps Intralot jumps 3.8% and Intracom 4.4%, AVAX gains 3%, while against the day’s sentiment Intrakat is slightly down 0.5%.
From there, with strong profits is El. Venizelos at 2.3% and Optima at +2.7%.
In the lower strata, Q&R continues undaunted with new gains of 4.7%.
Correlations across the board are clearly in favor of buyers, with 99 stocks moving higher compared to just 27 decliners
On a technical level, according to Ilias Zacharakis of Fast Finance, the level of 1,360 units was tested once again, however, again reacting in the 1,400 zone, collecting almost all of the week’s losses.
The level of 1.395 is nearby and 1.420 is the main resistance, with the stop to be remembered at 1.426. In any case, the main support is the level of 1,358 units.
Movements internationally
In the US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended a 6-day losing streak on Friday, but futures today show upward trends for all three indexes.
At +0.52% for the Dow Jones, at +0.5% for the S&P 500 and at +0.55% for the Nasdaq.
Indices are moving slightly upwards in Europe as well, with the British FTSE 100 varying by +1.55%, while the German DAX is at +0.4%, the French CAC 40 at +0.15% and the pan-European Stoxx 50 to +0.25%.
Bond yields remain stable at 5-month highs with the US 10-year yield at 4.664% and the 2-year yield at 4.999%, while the Greek 10-year yield is at 3.494%.
Finally, pressure on oil is easing with Brent falling to $86.8 a barrel by -0.5% and WTI to $83 by -0.1%.
