The week ended with a slight increase of 0.33% stock marketcompleting four straight up weeks.

It should be noted that the dividend cut, which is approaching €4 billion, the highest since 2008, has technically removed several units from the General Price Index.

The short-term course of the market is expected to depend on the international climate, but also on the results of the second quarter of the domestic Banks.

Another strong quarter of profitability is coming for the Greek banks, which from next week will start announcing the results for the second quarter of 2024.

THE Eurobank announces them on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, the National Bank on Thursday, August 1, 2024, and Alpha Bank on Friday, August 2, 2024.

Analysts see high upside margins in the conservative, as they call them, three-year business plans.

Banks are on track for strong profitability in the first quarter of 2024, with analysts estimating they will exceed their full-year targets.

The total profits of the four systemic banks amounted, in the first quarter of 2024, to 1.09 billion euros, compared to 788 million euros in the corresponding quarter of 2023, increased by +38.4%.

Ethniki presented a net profit of 358 million euros (+38%), Eurobank 287 million euros (+21.4%), Piraeus 233 million euros (+29.4%) and Alpha Bank 211 million euros (+89.91%).

Alpha Finance

Upward trajectory for the AX in the 2nd half aiming to conquer the next peak according to Alpha Finance and highlights that corporate profitability has exceeded expectations leading to upward revisions, in several cases and especially in the banking sector.

He emphasizes that valuations remain attractive, with G.D. trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of around 8.5x, at a significant discount to its historical average (40%) and indices such as the Stoxx 600 (30%) and the MSCI EM (21%) ).

He estimates further upside, with returns reaching 20-25% for the year as a whole, which means the General Index will exceed 1,550 points. The stock market’s top picks for 2024 are: Eurobank, Piraeus, Titan, PPC, Metlen and HEXA.

The General Price Index closed the week at 1,469.25 points, compared to 1,464.39 points the previous week, recording a weekly increase of 0.33%, since the beginning of July it has increased by 4.63%, while since the beginning of the year it has recorded gains 13.62%.

The FTSE/ASE 25 large-cap index closed the week with a marginal drop of 0.07% and since the beginning of 2024 is up 14.50%. The FTSE MID mid-cap index ended the week up 0.43%, up 2.96% year-to-date.

The banking index closed the week down 2.13%, while since the beginning of 2024 it has gained 21.86%.

The total value of transactions in this week’s sessions was 506.457 million euros, while the average daily value of transactions was 101.291 million euros. against 95.299 million euros.

The total market capitalization this week decreased by 0.226 million euros and stood at 101.433 billion euros, while since the beginning of the year it has increased by 101.433 billion euros.