The Athens Stock Exchange concluded a robust week of recovery with great force, reaching a new 13-year high. The IT industry contributed to the market's surge following the Epsilon Net deal.
Specifically, the General Index moved steadily upwards within a range of 16.29 points and closed at 1,454.98 points with a strong 1.38% rise to almost the high of the day (1,455.09 points).
Turnover was also quite high today, at EUR 149.9 million with an additional boost from Epsilon, while the EUR 22 million involved 19 packages (5 at Piraeus for EUR 5.3 million; 4 at Eurobank for EUR 1.8 million; a large one at Alpha for EUR 6.8 million) with a trading volume of 31.16 million pieces.
The banking index rose 1.53% to 1,268.96 points, the FTSE closed up 1.26% to 3,543.86 points, and the FTSE mid-cap outperformed by +2.5% to 2,349.63 points.
On a weekly basis, the GD came out 4.48% stronger, with the banking index rallying 7.57%.
Otherwise, the market in general not only did not fear the bearish pause yesterday but rather used it to move higher with renewed strength, showing that it now has the 1,470 level first and then the 1,500 level well on its radar.
Fittingly, after the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the local lows of 1,357.3 points (16/4), the Athens Avenue has covered a distance of almost 100 points in just 8 sessions and, barring any unexpected developments internationally, in the short term it does not seem to have any obstacles to face, let alone when the GC 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 the market an additional boost, always together with the traditional forces of the HA.
Epsilon Net topped the turnover with €26 million, which moved steadily at the public offer price of €12 (+18.88%) with a volume of 2.18 million shares.
Quest, which finished first in the large-cap market with a strong 8.7% rally to €6 on turnover of €1.56 million, was the primary indicator of the wider impetus the deal gave to the IT sector.
Similarly, in the mid-cap, Profile was up 3.1% with a high turnover of €1 million, and in the lower tiers, Ilyda posted an explosive 10.6% rise with a turnover of €86k, and Q&R closed up +3.4% with €228k.
Otherwise, banks moved coordinated upwards, occupying the 4 highest turnover positions after Epsilon.
Ethniki (24.5 mn) at 7.7 euros with +1.85%, Piraeus (23.4 mn) at 3.98 euros with +1.5%, Alpha (12 mn) at 1.648 euros with +1.04% and Eurobank (9.1 mn) at 2.02 euros with +1.5%.
Upward momentum was also provided by GEK Terna (3m) at 16.5 with +1.5%, PPC (1.9m) at 11.48 euros with +1.6%, Ellaktor (1m) at 11.48 euros with +1.6%, Titanas (1.1 million) at EUR 28.8, Lambda (1.2 million) at EUR 6.97 with +2.2%, and Viohalco (EUR 565 thousand) at EUR 5.67 with +2.16%.
Mytilineos (6.4 million) returned to the main buyers' picks with +0.74% at 38 euros, followed by OPAP (6.4 million) at 16.42 euros with +0.86%, Jumbo (5 million) at 28.7 euros with +0.56%, Terna Energy (3.3 million) at 18.23 euros with +0.7%, and OTE (2.1 million) at 14.34 euros with +0.84%.
Sarantis, Coca-Cola, Elvalhalkor, and ELPE also gained more than 1% in the FTSE, while the only stock in the index that lagged was Aegean (628 thousand euros) with -0.98%
In the mid-cap sector, apart from Epsilon and Profile, which picked up turnover, Intrakat gained 1.7%, Ideal 1.4%, and Intracom 2%.
