The French financial newspaper Les Echos talks about the revival of the Athens Stock Exchange in its current form, underlining that its index has had one of the best performances in Europe for a year, but also that investors see it with a new eye, as the prospect of Greek shares re-entering the MSCI developed markets index in the medium term.

“There is certainly interest in Greece, the country is recovering from the crisis in an impressive way, is one of the main recipients of new European funds and is soon expected to return to the investment grade rating,” the head of European equities research at the Amundi Institute told the French newspaper.

The French newspaper also underlines that for the first time after 17 years a banking institution, Optima Bank, enters the Athens Stock Exchange.

“The last time this happened, in 2006, the Greek economy was living a fairy tale and stock imports followed one another at regular intervals. Seventeen years later, this is an event: for the first time since Greece entered the worst recession in its history, a bank is preparing to enter the Stock Exchange” underlines the French financial newspaper.