Market rises on not-so-bad news
Stocks staged a significant rebound yesterday, as the market had expected worse news from Moody’s in terms of a downgrade on Greece than the international credit rating agency finally announced. The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 2,213.47 points yesterday, expanding by 4.48 percent from Monday’s close at 2,118.60 points. The blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 index climbed by 4.91 percent to end up at 1,135.77 points. Furthermore, the rise on foreign markets, which took some of them to a new year-high, bolstered the local bourse and secured gains of 6.04 percent for the banks’ sectoral index. EFG Eurobank led blue chips with gains of 8.84 percent, ahead of National Bank (up 7.40 percent) and Piraeus Bank (6.75 percent). Turnover amounted to 197.8 million euros, up from 113.9 million on Monday.