Today’s session on the Athens Stock Exchange was clearly bearish, with its main indices trading consistently in negative territory and many active traders engaging in profit-taking, amid dividend payouts, bond issuances, new share capital increases, and rising geopolitical concerns.
It should be noted that just yesterday, the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) reached a 4-month high, with the next highest closing recorded on February 4, 2026 (2,407.07 points).
Taking things in chronological order, the downing of a U.S. Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz triggered a new cycle of military retaliation between the U.S. and Iran.
More specifically, the U.S. struck Iranian military targets near the Strait of Hormuz as a “proportionate response” to the downing of the American helicopter, with Centcom stating that the operation was complete. Iran retaliated with attacks on U.S. bases in Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait.
“They took far too long to negotiate a deal that would have been excellent for them. Now they will have to pay the price,” Donald Trump said in a statement on “Truth Social.”
Meanwhile, the correction in valuations in Wall Street’s technology sector continued as, according to analysts, “traders are liquidating profitable positions in order to participate in SpaceX’s IPO.” (Elon Musk’s SpaceX aims to raise $75 billion through its IPO, which values the company at approximately $1.75 trillion, while it plans to offer up to 30% of its shares to retail investors, a percentage three times higher than usual).
Turning to the Athens Stock Exchange, today’s session was accompanied by a noticeable decline in trading volume (the lowest in the last five sessions), while the Banking Index’s -2.32% drop leaves no room for doubt as to the day’s negative protagonists.
Among other developments, there was a flurry of dividend payouts, corporate actions, and bond issuances.
More specifically, as of today, ETE shares (-2.48%) were traded without the amount of €0.2939667083 per share (net amount: €0.2792683729 per share), and EUROB shares (-2.38%) without the amount of €0.07187 per share (net amount: €0.06828 per share).
Also, today, 350,000 LAMDA bonds (+0.31%) were listed for trading in the bond category, each with a face value and offering price of €1,000, resulting from the issuance of a 7-year Common Corporate Bond, non-convertible into shares of the Issuer, with an issue date of June 9, 2026, with a fixed interest rate of 4.20% per annum.
Moving down to market capitalizations, as of today, MOTO shares (-3.46%) were trading at €0.1446 per share (net amount: €0.1374 per share), MERKO shares (-3.77%) without the €1.60 per share (net amount: €1.20 per share) and GMEZZ shares (-9.95%) excluding €0.06 per share (the final net dividend amount received by a shareholder may vary depending on their tax residency).
As of today, trading has ceased and the 50,000 bonds of PRONTEA’s non-convertible bond issue dated July 20, 2021, have been delisted. The total number of the Company’s listed bonds stands at 250,000.
Today, 10,000,000 new (KΟ) shares of PRONTEA (-8.77%), resulting from the recent rights offering, following the acceptance of the relevant public offer by 543 of the Company’s bondholders. The new total number of the Company’s listed shares stands at 265,494,534.
Significant oversubscription has been recorded for the senior unsecured bond issued by Motor Oil (+0.56%), which aims to raise €400 million. Bids totaling over €1.4 billion have already been submitted to the book, oversubscribing the target amount by 3.5 times. The five-year bond will be used, together with existing cash reserves, to repay all existing bonds totaling €400 million with a coupon rate of 2.125% and maturing in 2026, including the payment of accrued and unpaid interest, as well as to repay the underwriting fees and expenses of the Issue.
Optima Bank (-1.47%) proceeded with the final pricing of its Additional Tier 1 (AT1) issuance, raising €200 million from international markets, with the yield “locked in” at 6.75% and total demand exceeding €1.5 billion (over-subscription of more than 7.5 times). This is a perpetual bond with a call option after five years, which will be issued at 100% of its face value and will pay interest semi-annually. The interest rate will remain fixed until June 17, 2031, and will subsequently be reset every five years based on the 5-year mid-swap rate plus a spread.
Meanwhile, the Greek government returned to the markets today with the reissue of a 10-year bond, a move that is part of the PDMA’s borrowing program for the first half of 2026. The move is part of the government’s borrowing program, which provides for bond reissues aimed not so much at raising additional liquidity, but rather to strengthen the yield curve of Greek securities and improve the functioning of the secondary market. Initial pricing guidance was in the range of 71 basis points above the mid-swap (MS+71 bps), however, strong demand (bids totaling €36 billion) pushed the yield down to 68 bps above mid-swap. The interest rate settled at around 3.67%.
It is worth noting that ADMIE Holdings is publishing its first-quarter results today (Eurobank Equities expects net profits of €22.1 million, up 13%), and tomorrow the general meeting regarding the capital increase will take place (more details below).
Turning to the Athens Stock Exchange, and according to an experienced market insider, “even within the narrow confines of the large-cap segment, not all index-weighted stocks are moving at the same pace. The heavily weighted banking sector and the PPC stock remain in the lead, while ALWN, OTE, GEKTERNA, MOI, ELPE, and TITC are attracting less interest. The BIO Group is in a correction phase, while due to its significant “weighting” in the indices, the EEE share will always demand a share of attention.”
For those with a strictly short-term investment horizon, aside from developments in the Middle East, attention will also remain focused on this coming Friday, June 19.
It is worth noting that the June triple witching is scheduled for June 19, while the first position rollovers have begun on the Athens Stock Exchange.
On the other hand, the Stoxx index review will add CrediaBank shares to the STOXX Greece, STOXX Developed and Emerging Markets, STOXX Emerging Markets, STOXX Eastern Europe, STOXX Balkan, STOXX All Europe, and STOXX Global Total Market indices. Ellaktor is being removed from the indices. The changes will take effect at the close of trading on Friday, June 19.
Additionally, the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) and FTSE Russell announced the results of the regular semi-annual review of the composition of the FTSE/ASE indices for the period November 2025 – April 2026. CrediaBank is being added to the FTSE25, while Sarantis is being moved to the FTSE/ATHEX Mid Cap. The weighting factors (Capping Factors) for the shares included in the indices will be calculated based on the closing prices of the trading session on Friday, June 12, 2026. All changes will take effect as of the trading session on June 22, 2026, and the rebalancing will take place on June 19, 2026.
Major European markets are showing mixed signals, with active traders focusing on developments in the Middle East, oil prices, bond market yields, and pricing in the macroeconomic data being released.
It is worth noting that, according to the economic calendar, the ECB’s next monetary policy meetings and announcements are scheduled for June 11, July 23, September 10, October 29, and December 17, 2026.
The Fed’s corresponding meetings are scheduled for June 17, July 29, September 16, October 28, and December 9, 2026.
Meanwhile, annual inflation in the United States surged to 4.2% in May, up from 3.8% in April, as analysts had predicted. This is the first time in the past three years that inflation has exceeded the 4% mark.
On a monthly basis, the consumer price index rose by 0.5%, following a 0.6% increase in April and in line with analysts’ forecasts.
Annual core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose to 2.9% from 2.8% in April. The figure was in line with analysts’ forecasts. On a monthly basis, the core index rose 0.2%, lower than the 0.3% increase analysts had expected.
Yields in the bond market are stabilizing. More specifically, the yield on the U.S. 2-year note stands at 4.11%, while the yield on the corresponding 10-year note is at 4.51% (the yield on the 30-year note is rising to 5%). The yield on the Greek 10-year bond stands at 3.78%.
On the other hand, bond issuance is accelerating ahead of potential new interest rate hikes. As reported by Bloomberg, Germany, following the relaxation of its fiscal rules for financing defense and investment programs, has already raised €14 billion through three syndicated bond issuances maturing in 2026. At the same time, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Serbia carried out the largest such issuances in their history, while Australia and Mexico rank among the year’s largest issuers.
The General Index remained in negative territory throughout the day, falling to 2,350.19 points (-1.49%). At 5:00 p.m., it stood at 2,369.39 (-0.68%) and closed at 2,373.21 points, with daily losses of 0.52%.
Turnover stood at 229.7 million, of which 36.6 million related to pre-arranged trades (BOCHGR, AVAG, AKTR, BYLOT, PPC, EUROB, PIR, ADMIE, ALFA, BEL, ALMY, MOTO, KUES, MOI), with PIR, ETE, ALFA, and DEI accounting for 48% of the total gross trading value.
Of the total turnover of 229.7 million, 204.3 million relates to transactions in FTSE25 shares.