Little has changed on the major European markets, which are maintaining their positive momentum and modest gains, with most active traders staying on the sidelines as they await US consumer price index (CPI) data, due to be released at 15:30 Greek time and expected to offer some clues about the outlook for US Federal Reserve monetary policy.
After initially trading between gains and losses, the General Index of the Greek stock market also appears to have settled in positive territory with modest gains, and all signs point to the Athens Stock Exchange following the lead of the major European markets once they make their move.
The dearth of domestic news is evident on the local market tape, with attention continuing to shift among the same daily standouts, as mid-cap and small-cap stocks remain on the sidelines in terms of both trading activity and investor interest.
A clear indication of the prevailing mood on the Athens exchange is that, at the time of writing (13:30), although the main indices of the Greek stock market have moved into positive territory with modest gains, decliners (68) outnumber advancers (61).
A little short of the first three hours of trading, the ATHEX General Index has ranged between 2,620.51 (+0.84%) and 2,594.03 (-0.18%), while turnover is approaching €79m, of which €9.5m relates to pre-agreed transactions (ΜΠΕΛΑ, ΚΡΙ, ΠΕΙΡ, ΔΑΑ, ΕΕΕ).
Among large-cap stocks, AKTR continues to face aggressive selling (-3.09%), while CENER is also trading notably lower (-1.27%).
Among the gainers, the strongest advances are in ΔΕΗ (+1.07%), ΕΛΠΕ (+1.57%), ΕΛΧΑ (+1.6%), ΕΥΔΑΠ (+1.05%), ΜΟΗ (+1.45%), ΜΠΕΛΑ (+2.3%) and ALWN (+1.57%).
The first technical test remains a close for the General Index above 2,620 points.