The Athens Stock Exchange had its best session in the last five weeks today (23/9), with buyers dominating, breaking the streak of prolonged caution.

Banks were the main "key", helping the rest of the stocks to... get going and "wake up". However, for a safer assessment of the short-term trend, a follow-up will be required, with the breach of 1,450 points constituting the mega "bet".

In any case, the focus of attention remained on the upcoming placement in the National Bank, which is expected to lead to a significant increase in the supply of shares - partly explaining the earlier stagnation of the Greek market.

Somehow, in the first session of the new week, the General Index posted a remarkable 1.22% increase to 1,442.53 points, gaining about 17.5 points compared to Friday's close (1,425.19 points).

The arc of daily fluctuations was fixed at 23 points (from 1,421.91 to 1,444.13 points), with a turnover of 129 million euros, of which 26.2 million euros related to pre-agreed packages.

The banking index managed to reverse the stagnation pattern of recent weeks, as it finished +2.43% and 1,249 points, bridging the gap from this year's high of 1,354 points.

NBG shares climbed +4.46% and 7.50 euros, Eurobank shares followed at +2.92% and 2.045 euros, Piraeus shares traded +1.87% and 3.871 euros, while Alpha shares rose +0.31% and 1.60 euros.

Special mention should be made of Bank of Cyprus, which "returned" to Athens Avenue after several years. The start of the share proved to be highly satisfactory, as it closed +4.6% and EUR 5.0 (valuation of EUR 2.2 billion), while intraday it reached EUR 5.1.

The positive Citi report (price target 14.7 euros) helped the PPC share gain +2.8% and 12 euros (a 5.5-month high) in the high-cap index (+1.55% and 3,509 points). Metlen shares followed closely (+2.4%), which returned above 35 euros for the first time in 1.5 months, while Jumbo shares gained 2.7% and recovered to 25 euros, their highest level in the last two months. CEK Terna and AIA rose by at least +1%. In contrast, Cenergy's shares retreated -1.3% to EUR 9.7, correcting from recent records.

As for the mid-cap index (+0.15% and 2,342 points), Optima Bank's share stood out negatively at -2.5% and fell to EUR 13, with Ideal's share losing 1% and folding to EUR 6. Conversely, shares of ABAX rallied 8.6%, while shares of Fourlis, Lavipharm, ADMIE, EXAE and Austriacard rose up to 2%. Special mention should be made of Intralot, where a package for 2.3% of shares was "passed" at a price of EUR 1.2. The buyer was reportedly Intracom, whose shares expanded by 4.6%.