Up 0.83% the stock market is closed the week ending with the market exceeding the levels of 1,460 units.

The Athens Stock Exchange moved positively again this week, despite the high volatility that characterized the image of the European markets. At the center of investment interest were banking stocks, in the wake of the upgrades of Greek banks by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, with all Greek banks having been upgraded to investment grade and indeed two scales above the minimum threshold.

The coverage of Greek banks has begun the powerful Swiss investment house, UBS; declaring “buy” on all four systemic banks with high price targets. Banks are emerging strongly from the Greek debt crisis and are well positioned to capitalize on the strong macroeconomic recovery and credit cycle. It gives a target price for Alpha Bank at 2.30 euros, for Eurobank at 2.60 euros, for National Bank at 11 euros and for Piraeus at 5.50 euros.

Axia reiterates its “buy” recommendations for the four systemic banks and believes that the use of excess capital will be the differentiating factor that will create long-term momentum, in its analysis with the characteristic title: “Beautiful things for Greek banks”. Increases price targets for Alpha Bank to 2.50 euros (from 2.30 euros), Eurobank to 3.00 euros (from 2.50 euros), National Bank to 10.50 euros (from 8.80 euros) and Piraeus Bank at 5.30 euros (from 5.00 euros).

The General Price Index closed the week at 1,464.39 points, compared to 1,452.28 points the previous week, marking a weekly increase of 0.83%, since the beginning of July it has increased by 4.28%, while since the beginning of the year it has recorded gains 13.24%.

The FTSE/ASE 25 large-cap index closed the week up 1.21% and since the beginning of 2024 is up 14.58%. The FTSE MID mid-cap index closed down 0.49% for the week, but is up 2.52% since the start of the year.

The banking index closed the week with a rise of 3.77%, while since the beginning of 2024 it has recorded gains of 24.51%.

The total value of transactions in this week’s sessions was 476.498 million euros, while the average daily value of transactions was 95.299 million euros compared to 100.445 million euros.

The total market capitalization this week increased by 0.738 million euros and reached 101.659 billion euros, while since the beginning of the year it has increased by 13.771 billion euros.