The General Index of the Greek stock market held on to its gains for only a few minutes at the start of the session. Sellers then took the initiative, sending the Athens General Index into negative territory and down to within a few points of 2,578, while it maintained its strong correlation with the major European markets.
The few buyers on the Athens Exchange played a supporting role and focused on only a handful of stocks. For yet another session, shares in heavyweight EEE provided support and helped avert a worse outcome during the session’s difficult spells, confirming their role as a “bodyguard” for the Greek market’s main indices.
At the session low, EEE was the only large-cap stock still in positive territory, while falling shares outnumbered risers by more than two to one. This underscored the continued erosion of valuations across the vast majority of the market, although the ratio improved towards the close.
The picture changed in the final 15 minutes of trading, as buyers returned to the heavyweight banking sector. A late boost from the closing auction then helped the Athens Exchange’s main indices finish at, or close to, their session highs.
All of the above came alongside the highest turnover in the past three sessions.
There is little doubt that protests in many European countries are weighing on European shares and bonds. Concerns about technology companies’ profitability and funding are adding to the pressure, and foreign investment funds active on the Athens Exchange cannot ignore these developments.
“France is emerging as one of the most significant sources of concern for European financial markets. Political uncertainty, social unrest and difficulties in reining in the budget deficit have created an environment in which investors are demanding ever-higher returns to finance the French state. The problem is no longer confined to the political scene in Paris; it is beginning to affect banks, businesses and the wider eurozone bond market,” said Symeon Mavroudis, portfolio manager at Fast Finance Securities.
Meanwhile, Brent rose to test prices above $111 a barrel, a 5.5-month high, adding to the existing concerns.
The picture has changed here, too: as this article is being written, “black gold” has given up all its initial gains and is down by more than 2%.
Meanwhile, a surge in borrowing to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure, amounting to trillions of dollars, is sharply fuelling demand for credit default swaps (CDS), which compensate holders if the issuing company goes bankrupt or is unable to service its debt. According to Morgan Stanley Research, weekly trading volumes in CDS on bonds issued by giants such as Oracle, SpaceX, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Broadcom and Nvidia averaged more than $9bn in September, a dramatic increase from less than $2bn in July.
Bloomberg data also confirm that total trading volumes in US corporate CDS indices have already exceeded the full-year total for the previous year.
Meanwhile, third-quarter results will remain in focus for international markets, with reporting activity gathering pace this week.
According to Beta Sec., “on today’s calendar of US third-quarter results, Intuitive Surgical and Netflix report after Wall Street closes. On Wednesday 21 October, Abbott Laboratories, AT&T, CME Group and Thermo Fisher Scientific report before the open, while IBM, Lam Research and Tesla report after the close. On Thursday 22 October, Blackstone and Procter & Gamble report before trading begins, followed by Ford and Newmont after the close. Finally, on Friday 23 October, American Express and SLB report before the market opens.”
According to the financial calendar, the next ECB meetings are scheduled for 29 October and 17 December 2026.
The corresponding Fed meetings are scheduled for 28 October and 9 December 2026.
The next scheduled monetary policy meetings of the BoJ are on 30 October and 18 December, and those of the BoE on 5 November and 17 December.
The Fed has now entered its blackout period ahead of its October meeting.
Back on the Greek stock market, 140,000,000 ordinary shares of “CAPITAL MARITIME FINANCE CORP.” were admitted to trading today on the Athens Exchange’s main market, in the Industrial Products & Services sector. The shares trade under the ticker “CMFC” and opened at €7.5000. The daily price limit will be ±60% for the first three trading days.
On its debut, CMFC (+0.27%) traded 1,841,106 shares, moving in a range between €7.55 (+0.67%) and €7.46 (-0.53%).
In the coming months, two more shipping company listings on the Greek stock market are possible, according to reports.
METKA’s public offering is also imminent, paving the way for its return to the Athens Exchange.
Other features of today’s session included highly selective buying in large-cap stocks and continued weakness among mid- and small-cap shares.
Attention is also turning to the upcoming nine-month results from the heavyweight banking sector, which will undoubtedly play a key role in the Athens market’s short-term direction.
It is worth recalling that nine-month results will be announced in the following order: EYRΩB on 29 October 2026, PEIR on 30 October 2026, ALFA on 30 October 2026, ETE on 5 November 2026, BOCHGR on 5 November 2026, OPTIMA on 11 November 2026 and CREDIA on 12 November 2026.
The next scheduled reviews of Greece’s sovereign credit rating are: 23 October 2026: Standard & Poor’s; 6 November 2026: Fitch Ratings (concluding the annual cycle).
The “Euronext Athens Small Cap Conference 2026” will take place on 2 November 2026 at the Divani Caravel Hotel. According to Euronext Athens’ invitation, participating companies include Alpha Trust-Andromeda, AS Company, Biokarpet, Daios, Elton, EIS, Lanakam, Quality & Reliability, Revoil, Softweb, Trek Development, Unibios, Verallis and Y/KNOT Invest.
On 30 November and 1 December, the focus shifts to London, where the Morgan Stanley & Euronext Athens Greek Investment Conference 2026 will be held.
Major European markets were mixed and well off their session lows.
Sentiment also shifted significantly in the government bond market, with yields falling across all issuers.
More specifically, the yield on the US two-year note fell to 4.74%, while that on the 10-year stood at 5.09%. The 30-year yield was 5.41%. The Greek 10-year yield was 4.30%, while the corresponding French yield was 4.85%.
The General Index traded between 2,578.55 (-0.95%) and 2,605.88 (+0.10%). At 17:00 it stood at 2,605.88 (+0.10%), before the closing auction lifted it to a new high of 2,611.64 (+0.32%). It ended the session at 2,610.22, up 0.26% on the day.
Turnover stood at €295m, of which €30m came from pre-agreed trades (AKTR, ETE, GEKTERNA, EYRΩB, ALFA, PEIR, EYAPS, PPC). PEIR, ETE, EYRΩB and ALFA accounted for 55% of total gross trading value.
Of total turnover of €295m, €266.2m came from trades in FTSE 25 shares.