The Athens Stock Exchange is moving steadily in positive territory but with strong fluctuations, receiving a boost from Elvalhalcor and the banks, which broke the "stronghold" of 1,500 units, but in the process regressed with investors securing gains in blue chips.

In particular, for the first time since 2011, the General Index was up to 1,505.35 points (+0.91%) but has now returned to 1,495.5 with gains limited to 0.26%.

The banking index leads the rise with a 1.7% jump to 1,333 points, the FTSE is up 0.44% to 3,635 points, and the mid-cap FTSEM is up 0.68% to 2,408 points.

At first, the market moved at yesterday's lows but when it received the extra boost it needed from Eurobank's wake-up call, it moved above 1,500 points and saw buyers become more generally active on the board before some new profit-taking moves emerged. 

So far, the week has been marked by Wednesday's 1.5% jump, with investors in the remaining three sessions locking positions and shifting into stocks, but Stock Exchange seems to have set the stage for another strong five days overall.

More broadly, calm has been restored in global markets, especially after the latest US inflation reading (Wednesday) showed the slight deceleration analysts were expecting, with international equities now having the retreat in bond yields on their side.

As mentioned above, Elvalhalkor stands out early on with a strong rally sustained at +3.7%, with parent Biohalco up 0.8%, while in contrast, the other group, Cenergy, after a strong last month with a cumulative rise of over 20%, is currently correcting at -2.75%.

Banks continue to provide a boost, with Eurobank "leading the way" at +2.8% after strong results announced yesterday, while Alpha is up 1.6%, National Bank is up 1.45%, and Piraeus continues to underperform today, staying at +0.65%.

Beyond that, however, sellers are ahead in a number of blue chips, with Motor Oil, Mytilineos, ELPE, Lambda and Quest all in the -1% range, while Lambda, Titanas, Terna Energy, OPAP and OTE are also more gently down.

In the mid-cap sector, Intralot rallies 2.6%, Intracom +3.1%, and Premia +2%, while Intrakat struggles again today with a new 1.7% drop