Investors were predominantly sellers across European markets, with sentiment much the same on the Greek stock market.
Oil prices are edging up again after Tehran said it was still a long way from an Iran-US agreement.
Brent is at $106.92 and WTI crude at $98.08, with the VIXA/CBOE holding firmly above 20, as is the discount in the New York futures market.
With S&P 500 futures down 0.38%, the DAX is at 25,728 (-0.92%), the CAC 40 at 8,000 (-0.60%) and the EuroStoxx Banks index at 274.83 (-1.09%), so investor sentiment in Athens could hardly be very different.
With international markets favouring sellers, the first orders placed before the opening pointed to a lower opening, as proved to be the case for bank shares and most large caps.
At a time when there is no real basis for a convincing rally, the decline is a natural consequence, with the result visible on trading screens since early October.
The first orders put the banking index at 2,989 points, with a decline of as much as 30 points. Order flow was rather subdued, pointing more to yesterday’s session (€250 million) than to last week’s average (€350 million) — a potentially significant sign in a market where sellers have held a small but steady lead.
Turnover stood at €22 million in the first half-hour, with 2.6 million shares traded, including 1.8 million bank shares.
There were no pre-arranged trades in the opening period, recalling that yesterday €25 million of the €250 million total was traded in block deals,
Sellers outnumbered buyers in all four systemic bank stocks from the opening and throughout the first half-hour. Piraeus was at €9.392, Eurobank at €4.443, National Bank at €15.75 and Alpha Bank at €4.363.
As expected, the modest recovery in oil prices brought inflows into Motor Oil shares, at €63.90.
Inflows continued into Jumbo at €27.44, OTE at €18.99, Allwyn at €11.44 and AEGEAN at €11.01, while buyers returned to GEK TERNA at €38.66.
Shares rising outnumbered those falling by 21 to 55.