The early enthusiasm over the merger deal between National Bank and Eurobank, which saw Greek stocks rise at the beginning of Monday’s session, subsided in the afternoon, leaving most stocks in the red, although banks retained most of their gains for the day.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 825.09 points, declining by 0.59 percent from last Friday’s 829.96 points. The blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 index contracted by 0.45 percent, to close at 302.78 points.

While most blue chips suffered losses, led by Alpha Bank (-5.42 percent), National and Eurobank enjoyed significant gains (5.74 percent and 5.13 percent respectively).

In total, 69 stocks went up, 90 declined and 14 remained unchanged. Turnover came to 92.8 million euros, up from Friday’s 88.9 million.