With strong gains of 3.05%, the stock market closed the week ending with the market, “come to life”, after several weak sessions and increasing the degree of correlation with foreign markets, while it has now also entered the rhythms of the new public offering shares of National Bank, the development of which is expected to monopolize the interest of the market next week.

The market finds support in the positive climate that prevails in the international markets, but also in the good picture presented by the results announced by the listed companies for the first half of the year and heading towards a new record high of profitability for the whole of 2024.

The positive reports of foreign houses about Greek banks continue.

Next came the American bank JP Morgan, which praises the Greek banks. “Looking at the balance sheets of Greek banks today, it is almost as if there never was a Greek financial crisis”, he notes characteristically.

Loans are growing at healthy levels, asset quality has largely converged with Europe, capital cushions have improved and the ECB has approved dividend distribution for the first time since 2008. The target prices for the four systemic banks it is 2.3 euros for Alpha Bank, 2.8 euros for Eurobank, 9.7 euros for National Bank and 5.9 euros for Piraeus, with an overweight recommendation for all shares.

In the prime position to benefit from the growth cycle of the Greek economy are Greek banks, according to UBS, which sees significant upside of more than 50% for their shares, while predicting higher distributions beyond their managements’ conservative plans . In this context, the target price for Alpha Bank is at 2.32 euros, for Eurobank at 2.74 euros, for National Bank at 11.20 euros and for Piraeus at 3.80 euros.

The General Price Index closed the week at 1,468.70 units, compared to 1,425.19 units the previous week, marking a weekly increase of 3.05%, since the beginning of September it has strengthened by 2.62%, while since the beginning of the year it has recorded gains in percentage 13.58%.

The FTSE/ASE 25 large-cap index closed the week up 3.54% and since the beginning of 2024 is up 14.58%. The FTSE MID mid-cap index closed up 0.24% for the week, and is up 4.16% year-to-date.

The banking index closed the week with an increase of 4.68%, while since the beginning of 2024 it has gained 20.29%.

The total value of transactions in this week’s sessions was 658.254 million euros, while the average daily value of transactions was 131.651 million euros compared to 115.216 million euros.

The total market capitalization this week increased by 4.658 billion euros and reached 102.829 billion euros, while since the beginning of the year it has increased by 14.94 billion euros. The increase in capitalization by approximately 2 billion is due to the start of trading of Bank of Cyprus shares on the Main Market of the Stock Exchange.