A slight fall in oil prices helped prompt a rebound attempt on European stock markets.
With Brent at $104.064 a barrel, the DAX at 25,254 (1.72%), the CAC 40 at 7,845 (0.54%) and the EuroStoxx Banks index at 294.42 (1.28%), the recovery effort on Euronext Athens began with the banking sector.
It was clear from pre-market trading that mainly short-term players would seek to use the opportunity presented by European markets to re-engage with bank shares. The sector had fallen the most (5.55%) the previous week, with re-entry prices considerably lower for both systemic and non-systemic banks.
The first orders came in at 2,994 points, opening with a gap higher than Friday’s “close”, and the index traded between 2,987 and 3,030 points.
With healthy order flow and several pre-arranged trades, trading reached 5.2 million shares in the first half-hour, of which 4.4 million were bank shares. Turnover was €39 million, including €18.7 million in block trades. These were in bank shares and PPC, with the largest in Alpha Bank (at €4.244) and PPC (at €32.60).
With Wall Street closed today for the Columbus Day holiday, trading volumes and turnover are expected to come in below the previous week’s average of €395 million.
Alpha Bank shares stood at €4.237 (1.27%), Piraeus at €9.652 (1.38%), with PPC taking third place in the ranking at €22.62 (-0.12%), followed by National Bank at €16.225 (1.44%) and Eurobank at €4.411 (2.08%), completing the top five.
Sellers were in control of Motor Oil (€65.95) and HelleniQ Energy (€17.92), in line with the pullback in the EuroStoxx Oil & Gas index.
The FTSE25 stood at 6,602 (0.84%), reflecting buyers’ advantage across most large caps.
Allwyn shares stood at €12.17 (0.34%), Jumbo at €24.98 (1.83%), Cenergy Holdings at €23.14 (2.30), AKTOR at €9.81 (1.12%), GEK TERNA at €40.46 (0.42%), OTE at €19.40 (0.28%), ElvalHalcor at €3.47 (3.56%), among others.
Advancers outnumbered decliners 76 to 26. Veralis stood at €1.368 (20%), Europa Holdings at €1.68 (3.19%) and Revoil at €1.805 (1.69%)