The stock market closed with a small increase of 0.33% in the week ending. The recovery of the investment grade after the upgrade of the Greek economy by S&P and the deal of Alpha Bank with one of the leading European Banks and the 34th largest Bank in the World by assets, constitutes a resounding vote of confidence for Greek banks and the Greek market .

Understandably, the foreign houses (JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, AXIA) rush to praise the agreement and upgrade the prices – targets of the systemic Banks, as following the transfer of Alpha Bank’s shares, 15 – 25% will follow of Ethniki and 27% of Piraeus.

The geopolitical concerns and the international environment, however, do not allow for the immediate upgrade of investment psychology, after the recovery of the investment grade and the deal of Alpha Bank with one of the leading European Banks.

The market is turning its attention to the announcement of bank results, starting next week. The American group Goldman Sachs expects strong figures for the third quarter for the four systemic banks, maintaining the recommendation “buy” for Alpha Bank, National Bank and Bank of Piraeus and the “neutral” for Eurobank and “sees” a margin of increase of up to 54% for banking stocks.

For Alpha Bank, he gives a target price of 1.95 euros, for Eurobank 1.90 euros, for National Bank 8.40 euros and for Piraeus 4.20 euros.

An exceptionally strong quarter with an acceleration of net interest income, further cost containment, a limited flow of new NPLs and low risk costs, Euroxx expects from the banks. He sees large upside margins of over 47% for all four.

The recommendation of Euroxx, for all banks, is overweight and the target prices are at 2.3 euros for Eurobank, 8.5 euros for Ethniki, 2.1 euros for Alpha Bank and 4.6 euros for, Piraeus. The average valuation for Greek banks on a P/E ratio is 5.1 times for 2023, a discount of around 15% compared to the corresponding banks in Europe.

The General Price Index closed the week at 1,178.79 points, against 1,174.91 points the previous week, marking a weekly increase of 0.33%, since the beginning of October it has fallen by 2.53%, while since the beginning of 2023 it has recorded gains of 26 .78%.

The FTSE/ASE 25 large-cap index closed the week up 0.52%, while it has gained 28.78% since the beginning of the year.

The FTSE MID closed the week up 0.28%, while since the beginning of 2023 it has gained 35.47%.

The banking index closed the week with a gain of 1.38% and since the beginning of the year it has gained 49.86%.

The total value of transactions in this week’s sessions was €454.164 million, while the average daily value of transactions was €90.833 million from €78.290 million the previous week.

The total market capitalization this week increased by 211 million euros and reached 80.491 billion euros, while since the beginning of the year it has increased by 14.629 billion euros.