The Athens Stock Exchange closed today's transactions in positive territory after five consecutive days of losses, managing to partially trim the weekly losses.
The General Price Index closed at 1,419.24 points, up 0.88%. On a weekly basis, the main stock market index fell 1.66%, while it has posted gains of 9.75% since the beginning of the year.
The value of transactions amounted to 79.99 million euros, while 20,389,273 shares were traded. The high-cap index rose 0.94%, while the mid-cap index gained 0.97%.
The stagnation in the banking sector is a cause for concern with the relevant index closing with a gain of 0.5%, while on a weekly basis it lost 3.02% in anticipation of the placement of the National Bank of Greece, which is leading several portfolios to withdraw liquidity from the market. In today's session, Eurobank gained 1.39%, Alpha Bank gained 0.67%, while ETE gained 0.22% and Piraeus lost 0.23%. However, a new positive report came today from Morningstar DBRS, which noted that continued progress in the Greek banking sector was an important factor in its decision to upgrade Greece's rating outlook to positive.
Among high-cap stocks, Elvalhalcor (+3.89%), OPAP (+2.37%), PPC (+2.24%), Jumbo (+2.18%), and Hellaktor (+1.54%) recorded the biggest rise. On the contrary, Aegean (-0.47%), Sarantis (-0.37%), and Piraeus (-0.23%) recorded the biggest decline.
Eurobank and Alpha Bank had the highest trading volume, moving 6,481,897 and 3,471,995 shares, respectively. The highest trading value was recorded by Ethniki with 14.60 million euros and Eurobank with 12.32 million euros. 63 shares moved up, 33 down, and 25 remained stable.
The focus today is clearly on the rating of Greece by Moody's, which is the only agency that maintains the country below investment grade, with the market considering that the best-case scenario is an upgrade of the outlook to positive from stable. Of course, a positive surprise from the house is absolutely welcome.
At the same time, Euromarkets are also moving higher, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 up +0.95% and the German DAX up +1%, while Wall Street has set its sights on new records. The European Central Bank made its second interest rate cut—as expected on Thursday—by 25 basis points this year, bringing its key rate to 3.5%.
However, the ECB gave few clues about the path of monetary policy, with President Christine Lagarde stating that she "is not committed in advance to a specific interest rate path."
The ECB meeting came just days before the Federal Reserve's meeting on 17-18 September, at which it is expected to begin its own cycle of rate cuts. Wall Street futures were little changed after the S&P 500 closed Thursday higher for a fourth straight session.
