European markets are mixed, while sellers have the upper hand in the opening half-hour on the Greek stock market.
The discount on S&P 500 futures remains steady on Wall Street. Brent is down at $103.98, while the yield on the US 10-year Treasury is slightly lower at 5.09%. In Frankfurt, the DAX is down 0.23% at 25,217, while in Paris the CAC 40 is up 0.16% at 7,885 points.
The EuroStoxx Banks index is at 291.07, down 0.67%, with selling in European bank shares keeping sellers slightly ahead on Euronext Athens.
An overhang of selling in bank shares was evident before the open, with the first trades coming in at 3,020.51 points. Trading was moderate during the first half-hour, but there was a steady flow in Eurobank, National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank and some divergence in Piraeus.
In yesterday’s session, buyers had the upper hand in National Bank shares; today, it was Piraeus in the first 30 minutes. This suggests that position realignment through buying and selling is continuing, with a clear rotation for another session.
Turnover from block trades reached €21.18m in the first half-hour, including a large trade of 2.5 million Eurobank shares at €4.435, worth €11.09m in total (at 10:45). This was preceded (at 10:44) by a block trade of 1 million Piraeus shares at €9.882. It may have been part of the process described above.
Turnover stood at €40m (at 11:00), with 5.92 million shares traded, of which 5.42 million were bank shares (owing to pre-arranged trades).
Alongside the banking sector, selling is also evident in most large-cap stocks, pushing the FTSE 25 towards the 6,600-point area.
There is broad agreement among market participants that some foreign portfolio managers have been active sellers since the first trading sessions in October, leading to a slow, steady decline in bank shares and blue chips.
The FTSE 25 is down 4.63% for the month, while the banking index has fallen 7.34%, reinforcing analysts’ view that managers investing in emerging markets are reducing their positions. This interpretation makes sense; after all, it was among the possible scenarios for those who had anticipated the rebalancing.
Sellers remain persistent and become more aggressive as the session progresses, putting pressure on most shares. Examples include Cenergy Holdings (22.42), Viohalco (15.92), Optima Bank (14.15), Credia Bank (0.916), PPC (22.24) and others, beginning to weigh somewhat on sentiment after the first half-hour.
Coca-Cola is rising at €52, while Allwyn and Aegean are in positive territory.
A broker said the trend could be attributed to the absence of a catalyst capable of driving gains at this stage of the market, as well as specific factors affecting shorter-term investors’ positioning. Developments centred on Guilfoyle’s removal are, to varying degrees, shaping sentiment in a way that favours sellers.
Selling is the general trend across the wider market. The balance between shares in positive and negative territory stood at 26/73 at 11:10.
Turnover reached €47.45m as sell orders accelerated across a broader section of the market.