by Manos Hachladakis
The Athens stock market ended a strong week of recovery in emphatic fashion, setting yet another new 13-year high with the IT sector giving additional impetus to the market following the Epsilon Net deal.
In particular, the General Index moved steadily upwards within a range of 16.29 points and ended at 1,454.98 points with a strong rise of 1.38% almost to the highs of the day (1,455.09 points).
Today’s turnover was also quite high, at 149.9 million euros with an additional boost from Epsilon, while 22 million related to 19 packages (5 in Piraeus for 5.3 million, 4 in Eurobank for 1.8 million, one big on Alpha for 6.8M) with volume trading at 31.16M pieces.
The banking index rose 1.53% to 1,268.96, the FTSE closed up 1.26% to 3,543.86, while the FTSE mid-cap outperformed by +2.5% to 2,349.63.
On a weekly basis, DG came out strengthened by 4.48% with a rally of 7.57% of the banking index.
On the other hand, the market in general was not only not scared by the bearish respite yesterday, but rather took advantage of it to move higher with renewed strength, showing that it has now put the level of 1,470 units and then 1,500 on its radar for good. .
Fortunately, after the de-escalation of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the local lows of 1,357.3 points (16/4) the Athens Avenue has traveled a distance of almost 100 points in just 8 sessions and, if there is no unexpected development internationally, in the short term it doesn’t seem to have any hurdles to face, especially when DG has significantly outperformed the major international indices during this period.
In today’s session, developments with a deal for Epsilon mobilized buyers in the sector more broadly, directing liquidity to IT stocks and giving additional impetus to the market, always along with the traditional forces of the AX.
On the dashboard
At the top of the turnover with 26 million euros was Epsilon Net, which moved steadily at the price of the public offering of 12 euros (+18.88%) with a volume of 2.18 million pieces.
The broader boost given by the deal to the IT industry was seen first and foremost in Quest which finished at the top of the large cap with a strong rally of 8.7% to 6 euros on turnover of 1.56 million.
Accordingly, in the medium capitalization Profile strengthened by 3.1% with a high turnover of 1 million and in the lower layers Ilyda saw an explosive increase of 10.6% with a turnover of 86 thousand euros and Q&R closed at +3.4% with 228 thousand euros.
Elsewhere, the banks moved steadily upwards occupying the 4 positions of the highest turnover after Epsilon.
Ethniki (24.5 million) at 7.7 euros with +1.85%, Piraeus (23.4 million) at 3.98 euros with +1.5%, Alpha (12 million) at 1.648 euros with +1.04% and Eurobank (9.1 million) at 2.02 euros with +1.5%.
Upward momentum was also given by GEK TERNA (3 million) to 16.5 with +1.5%, PPC (1.9 million) to 11.48 euros with +1.6%, Ellactor (1 million ) at 2.62 euros with +3.15%, Titan (1.1 million) at 28.8 euros, Lambda (1.2 million) at 6.97 euros with +2.2% and Biohalco (565 thousand euros) at 5.67 euros with +2.16%.
In the main choices of buyers, Mytileneos (6.4 million) returned with +0.74% to 38 euros, with OPAP (6.4 million) to 16.42 euros with +0.86%, Jumbo ( 5 million) to 28.7 euros with +0.56%, TERNA Energy (3.3 million) to 18.23 with +0.7% and OTE (2.1 million) to 14.34 euro with +0.84%.
Gains of more than 1% in the FTSE were also recorded by Sarantis, Coca Cola, ELVALHALCOR, ELPE, while the only stock in the index that lagged behind was Aegean (628 thousand euros) with -0.98%
In the mid-caps, in addition to Epsilon and Profile which collected turnover, Intrakat and HEXAE increased by 1.7%, Ideal by 1.4% and Intracom by 2%.
From there, Optima jumped 3.9% to 10.68 with a turnover of 918 thousand euros.
The lead for buyers across the board was extremely large, with 97 stocks moving higher compared to just 34 decliners.
The technical picture
As Beta Securities’ Manos Hatzidakis notes, the chart data has improved spectacularly with buyers taking the upper hand and driving the General Index to new highs for the year, areas essentially untouched for more than 13 years.
Absolute agreement is seen across the set of technical indicators for the market’s bullish breakout with a strong opening signal in Monday’s session and immediate confirmation in the next session. The intensity of the rise left outstandings in the 1,420-1,424 zone, which now delimits the short-term support of the General Index.
Oscillators despite the strong rise are still in neutral price zones leaving open the possibility of a continuation of the move without some serious local correction to 1,510 points with an increased margin of error as the General Index and capitalizations have stopped keeping pace since 2012.
Nevertheless, M. Hatzidakis points out, the big picture both in terms of transaction volumes and dynamics shows that there is still room for improvement, possibly approaching the area of 1,500 units which is the most immediate scenario to increase the supply increasing the possibility of a more substantial correction.
The image internationally
In the US the indices yesterday to some extent brought macroeconomic pressures under control, limiting the losses below 1% and today they are immediately back on an upward trajectory again, boosted by the rallies of Alphabet and Microsoft which impressed with their figures in the quarter .
With profits of more than 10%, the parent company of Google and YouTube, with Microsoft increasing by more than 2.5%.
In this climate, the Dow Jones moves +0.35%, the S&P 500 +0.9% and the Nasdaq jumps 1.65%.
Inflation based on the “Fed gauge” didn’t scare today after all, with the structural PCE at 2.8% in March slightly higher than the 2.7% that the market expected, as yesterday with the measure of GDP it was known that overall in the quarter it had run at 3.7% (vs. forecast for 3.4%).
The European indices have also returned to positive territory, with the German DAX at +1.35%, the French CAC 40 at +1%, the British FTSE 100 at +0.7% and the pan-European Stoxx 50 at +1.35 %.
In the bond market, yields ease slightly after yesterday’s jump, to 4.652% on the 10-year US and 4.977% on the 2-year, while the Greek 10-year is down to 3.446%.
Finally, oil has returned to the fringes of $90 with yesterday’s upward movement, Brent at $89.6 a barrel and WTI at $84.1.
