Despite pressure, investors continued to favor blue chips, which allowed the Athens Stock Exchange to maintain its current levels and strong performance.

Specifically, the General Index moved mostly negatively but retreated at most to 1,447.12 (-0.54%), while in the last hour it also limited these losses, and finally, in the auctions, it gained marginally and closed at 1,455.48 points with +0.03%.

The banking index closed down 1% at 1,256.23 points, the FTSE fell 0.26% to 3,534.5 points, and the FTSEM mid-cap index, on the other hand, gained 1.02% to 2,373.67 points.

After a strong week that ended with new 13-year highs, the market today seemed to gradually settle into a festive rhythm ahead of the holidays that will follow (Wednesday due to May Day, Monday and Friday due to Easter, and Tuesday 7/5 due to the May Day transfer), but even so, it did not let this spoil the good picture it has shown since the geopolitical tension in the Middle East subsided.

The top three turnover positions were occupied by three banks, with Alpha following a little behind but all down.

NBG with 18.99 million at 7.67 euros with -0.4%, Piraeus with 12.8 million, which was the most pressured at 3.904 euros with -1.9%, Eurobank with 12 million at 2.01 euros with -0.5%, and Alpha with 5.3 million at 1.62 euros with -1.7%.

In general, however, the outlook for the sector remains more than positive, with Eurobank Equities today making the case for an entry opportunity by raising their target prices.

OPAP with 10.4 million closed at 15.85 euros with a strong loss of 3.47% as it is trading without dividend rights as of today, while Epsilon with 9.7 million continued to be locked in at the public offer price of 12 euros.

Beyond that, the Stasinopoulos group's businesses were the leaders in the positive direction, with Cenergy (1.86 million euros) leading the way with a 3.7% increase to 7.85 euros, while parent company Viohalco (754 thousand euros) and Elvalhalkor (150 thousand euros) both saw gains of 2.29% and 1.14%, respectively.

Titan (1.7m) hit new highs at 29.55 euros with +2.6%, Motor Oil (1.57m) at 27.20 euros with +2.18%, Jumbo (4.18m) and Aegean (1.1m) both gained 1.81%, and GEK Terna (3.6m) gained 1.7% ahead of its earnings release.

On the other hand, apart from banks and OPAP, on the FTSE, PPC (4.6m) fell to €11.34 with -1.2% and ELPE (1.4m) to €8.235 with -1.67%, while Quest closed at -1.17% and Hellactor -1.34%, both with trades worth around €500k.

In the mid-cap sector, the strong rallies of more than 5% of Intrakat (+5.74%) at 5.34 euros with a turnover of 1.2 million euros and Intracom (+5.08%) at 3.72 euros with 789 thousand euros stood out, with Intralot up +1.94% and Alumyl up +2.86%, while on the contrary Kri Kri corrected -2.7% and Thrace Plastics lost 2.2%.