Some steam is lost on the local bourse
Stocks on the local bourse lost some of the steam they had at the start of last week after reports on Friday about a possible extraordinary levy on banks and profitable corporations. As a reaction to the reports, the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed the week on Friday at 2,830.01 points, registering a 2.79 percent rise on the previous week’s close at 2,753.23 points, though on Wednesday it had reached 2,896.91 points. Although the initial impetus from the election of the new government now appears to have moderated, the favorable news regarding the suspension of the strike at the port of Piraeus might rekindle hopes of a rebound. Meanwhile, the local market has added about 50 billion euros to its capitalization from the lowest point of the year last March. Most of this capital has been channelled to banking stocks. At the same time, with the exception of Intralot and Mytilineos stocks, all blue chips in the FTSE 20 index have a capitalization of over 1 billion euros.
