The Athens Stock Exchange is attempting to manage the geopolitical nervousness, which after the heavy losses of the opening against the backdrop of the escalating tension in the Middle East, sees the pressure gradually receding, while the international indices seem perfectly calm.

Banks are in the sellers' crosshairs, with the sectoral index down 1.59% at 1,183.16 points. The FTSE 25 (high cap) is down 1.18% at 3,355.74 points and the Mid Cap (mid cap) is lower by 2.24% at 2,211.04 points.

The 4 systemic banks that all started with losses significantly above 1% are now limiting the pressure, with National Bank and Eurobank at -0.6%, Alpha at -0.8% and Piraeus at -1.25%.

Still down more than 1% are PPC, Autohellas, Cenergy, ElvalHalcor  GEK Terna and Aegean.

Upward trends are shown by Elpe at +0.85%%, Ellaktor at +0.8% and Motor Oil at +0.7%, while Sarantis is up 0.5% and mildly up with smaller gains are still Coca Cola, Titanas and Quest..

The mid-cap sector is more burdened where only two stocks are moving up (Epsilon and Kri Kri) with Intralot, Profile and Intrakat down more than 2% and PPA down -3.9%.