Stocks rise for third session
Greek stocks rose for a third straight session yesterday as buyers turned to bank shares on optimism that the government will be able to secure funding. Speculation has been growing that Greece will turn to capital markets in the coming days in view of redemptions of government securities totaling more than 22 billion euros in April-May. The Athens bourse’s benchmark general index added 1.54 percent to 1,957.39 points after touching an intra-session high of 1,971 points. The blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 index rose 2.03 percent to 979.61 points. A 3.79 percent rise in bank stocks brought gains in the sector in the last seven days to 8.6 percent. National Bank jumped 4.36 percent to 14.61 euros and Alpha Bank gained 4.32 percent to 7.01 euros. Turnover reached 162.6 million euros from 146 million in the previous session.
