ATHEX: Stocks soar in Athens and Nicosia
The growing anticipation of a major credit rating upgrade that will bring Greece back to investment grade, possibly within two months, and the positive estimates by the European Commission regarding the course of the Greek and eurozone economies this year, released on Monday, gave the prices of Greek stocks a fresh boost at the start of the week. That has taken the Athinon Avenue benchmark to highs unseen in 101 months – i.e. since September 2014 – on consistently high turnover too.
The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,092.91 points, adding 2.32% to Friday’s 1,068.12 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 2.09% to end up at 2,664.19 points.
Τhe banks index advanced 2.84%, as Alpha jumped 4.94%, Piraeus earned 4.41%, National grew 1.91% and Eurobank collected 1.24%.
In total 96 stocks enjoyed gains, 21 posted losses and 14 remained unchanged. Turnover amounted to 140.3 million euros, down from last Friday’s €141.6 million.
In Nicosia, the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange jumped 2.41% to close at exactly 100 points on the day after the election of the new president of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides.
