Investors are also awaiting the first indications from the US election. Oil and gas futures came under aggressive selling after diplomacy on the Iran front picked up again, while volatility surged in New York futures trading.
Brent stood at $106.92 and WTI crude at $98.53, while the VIX/CBOE rose 8.91% to 21.15. With 20 points considered an initial warning threshold, particularly for traders, those using intraday trading strategies need to exercise greater caution.
It was clear from the outset that this week’s five sessions would be marked by volatility, greater risk and broader hedging across various positions.
Yesterday’s 0.99% fall in the Stoxx Oil & Gas index, to 609.12 points, was indicative of this short-term trend and the main reason for the sell-off in Motor Oil and HelleniQ Energy shares. Understandably, a fund manager who has made returns of 107.5% on the former and 109.8% on the latter (for 2026) would rush to lock in some of those spectacular gains at the first sign of selling in Europe.
Traders were cautious on Wall Street last night and in Asian markets in the early hours. After the S&P 500 fell 0.51% to 7,541 points, the 0.27% discount in the futures market a short while ago pointed to a short bias on a daily basis.
Buyers made a measured return to European stock markets, with Brent’s 7.6% plunge to $104.79 prompting buying in shares of companies that benefit from this development.
Yesterday’s session on Euronext Athens was mainly lower, with hedging through Coca-Cola HBC masking the market’s true picture. The General Index stood at 2,602.41 points, while Coca-Cola HBC shares were at €57.50. Trading value totalled €252.3 million, including €25.2 million in pre-agreed trades and €150 million in shares of the four systemically important banks.
Buyers outnumbered sellers only in National Bank of Greece shares, apparently as investors awaited the bank’s third-quarter/nine-month results. National Bank and Coca-Cola HBC are next up tomorrow, Wednesday, with whatever implications that may have, initially in the short term (intraday trading).
The banking index stood at 2,993.63 points, with bulls looking for confirmation (or otherwise) of the 3,000-point level as a reference point. Moody’s discusses the domestic banking sector’s defences against four risks, I would add that, of the four systemic groups’ total market capitalisation of €52 billion, nearly €36 billion is in all kinds of “foreign hands” (always in market-value terms).
Buyers prevailed in Jumbo, Lamda Development and Allwyn, as well as PPC, Athens International Airport, Titan, Aegean and Metlen, alongside Coca-Cola HBC, helping to put the FTSE 25 at around 6,659.10 points.
Corporate developments and activity, together with financial results, are creating a trend that favours stock-picking in this run of sessions.