ATHEX: Bourse rises for fifth week in a row

The Greek bourse benchmark completed on Friday its fifth straight week of gains, with price growth for bank and construction stocks and pressure on refineries.

The day started in the red for the indexes but in the latter half of the session buyers gained the upper hand to swing the main index and the majority of stocks into the black, as the market anticipated the verdict by Standard & Poor’s on Greece’s credit rating and economic outlook.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) General Index closed at 1,111.33 points, adding 0.43% to Thursday’s 1,106.57 points. On a weekly basis it advanced 0.77%.

The large-cap FTSE-25 index expanded 0.61% to end up at 2,695.10 points.

The banks index improved 1.13%, as Eurobank earned 1.75%, Alpha grew 1.34%, Piraeus grabbed 0.71% and National Bank fetched 0.34%.

In total 52 stocks reported gains, 47 suffered losses and 22 remained unchanged.

Turnover amounted to 83.3 million euros, up from Thursday’s €80.1 million.

In Nicosia, the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange increased 0.18% to close at 108.08 points.