Despite the environment of high volatility and low investor interest, the Athens Stock Exchange managed to take advantage of the positive "turn" abroad and return above 1,430 points—for the first time since June 13.
This, understandably, gave further "breathing space" to the domestic market, which is trying to manage the political developments in Europe (elections in the UK and France) and maintain above the critical 1,400-unit support level.
All this in a session in which OTE was "pressured" by the cut-off of the dividend option of 0.71 euros (gross amount) and Wall Street was closed due to the Independence Day holiday.
Against this backdrop, the General Index recorded a remarkable 0.86% increase to 1,435.81 points, gaining 12 points compared to Wednesday's close (1,423.56 points).
The arc of daily fluctuations was fixed at 15 points (from 1,420.03 to 1,435.81 points), with a trading turnover of just 63.9 million euros, of which 1.9 million euros was related to pre-agreed packages.
The banking index managed to maintain a positive bias as it expanded +1.97% to 1,267 points, pending the first dividend distributions.
Eurobank's shares flew +3.07% and 2.118 euros; National Bank's shares rose +2.16% and 7.948 euros; Piraeus' shares followed at +1.56% and 3.648 euros; and Alpha Bank's shares traded +0.87% and 1.624 euros.
In the high-cap index (+0.97% and 3,502 points), Aegean's shares climbed +3.3% and 11.9 euros, breaking away from the 11.0-euro supports. Lamda, Viohalco, Ellaktor, and EYDAP shares also gained more than 2%. At the same time, shares of OPAP, Elvalhalcor, Helleniq Energy, and Autohellas expanded by at least 1%. On the contrary, OTE shares came under pressure as they were trading without dividend rights as of today. As a result, it fell back to -2.3% and EUR 13.4, however, picking up significant intraday losses.
As for the mid-cap index (+0.93% and 2,280 points), Intracom's shares stood out dynamically at +3.7% and 3.45 euros, with Intralot's shares expanding to +2.6% and 1.23 euros, reaching 6-year highs again. Epsilon, Fourlis, Ideal and Techniki Olympiaki were up more than 2%, while Profile's shares soared +4.7% to 4.86 euros. PPA, Lavipharm and Dimand followed by more than 1%.
