The week, marked by significant developments, ended with gains for the bulls.
It began with a US-Russia-Ukraine trilateral meeting, in Abu Dhabi, continued with fresh threats by Trump against Iran and inflation concerns, and ended with a prolonged Microsoft outage.
Inflation, interest rates, oil prices, departures from Nvidia and preparations for Anthropic’s IPO, along with a host of other developments, kept markets volatile from New York and Seoul to Frankfurt, Paris and Athens.
Still, the S&P 500 was up 2.58%, having opened above 7,555 points, while Microsoft futures traded at a significant discount.
Renewed concerns about high inflation and the likelihood of another Fed rate rise led to the biggest weekly rise in bond yields — and the heaviest hit to bond prices — in more than 18 months. A wave of selling pushed Germany’s 10-year yield to 3.37%, with yields rising across the euro zone, while the euro fell below $1.11. This came amid concerns about Europe’s energy supply and a further slowdown in growth to 0.4% from 0.6%.
Despite this, buyers in Frankfurt and Paris banked gains, with the DAX up 3.80%, the CAC 40 up 2.58% and the General Index on Euronext Athens up 3.25% to 2,636.29.
Bulls were in control for most of the session, with a moderate pace of orders initially (as there were several problems with order execution) before activity picked up in the final hour, when some investors tried to take partial profits.
Trading totalled 25.9 million shares, including 18.3 million bank shares. Turnover was €233m, of which €32.26m came from pre-agreed trades.
The banking sector rose in the first half of the session and fell in the second, as investors took profits, with orders placed in a range of 3,272-3,218 points. The Banking Index gained 5.76% over the week, with Eurobank up 7.49% to €4.82, National Bank up 7.13% to €17.44, Alpha Bank up 4.70% to €4.743 and Piraeus up 3.74% to €9.994. Piraeus saw the heaviest trading, following a new mini-placement by Paulson.
It was a week of corporate developments and earnings, with results from the HelleniQ Energy group standing out. At the same time, management’s investment plan (a related report by Giorgos Findikakis) prompted inflows, lifting the shares 7.48% over the week to €17.28. Inflows also went into Motor Oil towards the end of the week, this time in step with the trend in the Euro Stoxx Banks index.
It was a strong week for shares in the Viohalco group, with Cenergy Holdings posting the biggest gain, up 8.15% to €22.56.
By contrast, selling in Allwyn continued, following JPMC’s underweight rating. The shares closed at €9.65 (!) after losing 13.7%.
The week was also marked by an event for METKA, ahead of its imminent stock-market listing, while Metlen shares rose 1.55% over the week to €45.90.
Coca-Cola HBC and Jumbo were highly volatile, with weekly changes of 1.11% to €50.20 and 0.87% to €27.70, respectively.
Leveraged activity was subdued among mid-caps, with shares in KRI KRI hitting a new record high of €38.30. There was activity in shipping stocks Star Bulk, Safe Bulkers and Capital Maritime Finance.