With a imperceptible fall of 0.02%, the stock market closed the week ending, while the average daily transaction value also recorded a significant decline, with the turnover moving below 100 million euros at all meetings.

The market at the beginning of the week moved to new 9-year highs and within touching distance of the 1,300 mark, only to correct towards the end of the week with “imported” pressures as international markets retreated significantly as scenarios for a continuation return tight monetary policy by central banks and concerns about a recession in the global economy.

Anyway and this week the positive reports continued for the Greek stock market.

American bank JP Morgan declares “Bull” for the Greek stock market and upgrades Greek shares to overweight from neutral before, after the election result which guarantees the continuation of reforms. As the American bank points out, the Greek stock market remains at a large discount of 49% to emerging markets in 12-month P/E terms, despite the rally that preceded the elections and despite the fact that Greece is in a very stronger growth path for many years to come than the eurozone. The US bank sees Greek equities as 49% undervalued relative to emerging markets on a trailing 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, despite the year-to-date rally and despite its growth path Greece is written off better than the Eurozone for the next few years.

The return to investment grade will have more benefits than the Stock Exchange’s return to developed markets, according to Axia. The AX’s strong 40% year-to-date rally, which makes it the second best performing stock market in dollar terms, was certainly driven by EMG funds, but also by increased non-index flexible fund placements.

However, as the majority of active funds will be eligible to invest in Greek stocks, future flows will be supported by strong macroeconomic data. Axia predicts that the total capitalization of the AXA as a percentage of GDP will increase by 15% by 2024, which translates into an increase in the stock market value of the Greek market by 45%.

NBG Securities is optimistic about the course of Greek shares in the second half. He expects the upgrade to gradually lead to a re-rating of Greek stocks and bonds and their eventual re-inclusion in developed market indices, an undoubtedly positive performance catalyst, which, however, may take a few years to materialize.

With a rise of 1.41%, the banking index closed this week, while since the beginning of the year it has recorded gains of around 60%.

Greek banks may have posted high returns, but JP Morgan sees significant upside in view of Greece’s soon-to-be investment grade. With the recommendation for Greek banks to remain overweight (yields better than those of the market), JP Morgan also increases the target prices. The new target price for Alpha Bank is 2 euros, from 1.50 euros previously, for Eurobank at 1.90 euros from 1.60 euros, for National Bank at 7.30 euros, from 6.30 euros and for Piraeus at 3.90 euros, from 2.35 euros previously.

The stats of the week

The General Price Index closed the week at 1,278.30 points, compared to 1,278.61 points the previous week, marking a weekly drop of 0.02%, while since the beginning of 2023 it has recorded gains of 37.48%.

The FTSE/ASE 25 large-cap index closed the week down 0.60%, while it has gained 36.80% since the beginning of the year. The FTSE MID CAP index ended the week up 3.38% and since the beginning of 2023 is up 45.84%.

The banking index closed the week with an increase of 1.41%, while since the beginning of the year it has gained 59.74%.

The total value of transactions in this week’s sessions was 400.637 million euros, while the average daily value of transactions was 80.127 million euros from 109.305 million euros the previous week.

The total market capitalization this week increased by 110 million euros and stood at 86.158 billion euros, while since the beginning of the year it has increased by 21 billion euros.