The “bulls” in Wall Street It’s been two years since the S&P 500, the world’s leading benchmark index, hit new all-time highs and has gained more than 60% over the past two years.

Its General Index HAmay have recently fallen short of returns compared to the major international markets, but in the last two years it has recorded gains significantly higher than them. It strengthens over 80%, when in the same period the S&P 500, as we mentioned above, gains 63%, the Nasdaq 74%, the Dow Jones gains 51%, the German Dax-30 gains 60%, the French Cac-40 28% and the British Ftse-100 by 17%.

Over the last two years, the high-cap index has recorded gains of 83% and the mid-cap index has gained 84%, while the banking index has outperformed by 140%.

That Athens Stock Exchange in 2022 it managed in a difficult situation to “resist” the war, inflation, interest rate increase, energy crisis and differentiate itself positively from the other developed markets of the planet, something that happens for the first time since 1990.

The Greek stock market not only played a strong “defense”, presenting a better image than the international markets in a difficult international environment but in the end it closed in positive territory, when the major international indexes fell significantly (S&P -19% Nasdaq -33%, Dow Jones -9%, DAX-30 -12% and Cac-40 – 9%, based on prices shortly before the close of the last session of the year).

The Athens Stock Exchange closed 2023 with high gains of 39.08%, completing the third consecutive year of growth (+4.08% in 2022 and +10.43% in 2021) and was at the top of the returns worldwide. It won the “bronze” medal worldwide, closing behind the Russian MOEX index and the Nasdaq, while it was the world champion of returns in the first 6 months of 2023.

The rise of the stock market in 2023 was based on the recovery of the investment grade with Greece in the upswing of the Greek economy, the record results recorded by listed companies, the return of banks to profitability and the program of privatizations. In January 2023, AXA reached 1,000 units, which it had “seen” since December 2014.

A painful stock market cycle of more than 13 years seems to come to an end, in 2024, for the stock market, which returns to 2011, closing the “black” period of the crisis and is now in the anteroom of developed markets

The market valuation now stands at 100 billion euros, compared to the 50-55 billion euros that the market capitalization fluctuated in 2011, and is the highest since late November 2009, when the index was at 2,400 units. Average daily trading activity soared to pre-Lehman Brothers levels, more than 15 years ago.

Listed companies are changing… books, returning to profitability and distributing dividends and “magnetizing” international investment funds, as the cycle of recapitalizations in the Greek banking system closes. The market is up about 10% from the close of 2023.

The returns

Since the end of September 2022, of the high capitalization shares (based on the closing of Thursday 17/10/2024), the biggest increase is recorded by the shares of Piraeus (+264.90%), Titan (+210.89 %), of Ethniki (+148.45%), PPC (+146.15%), Eurobank (+138.67%), Mytileneos (+137.17%), Aegean Airlines (+135, 97%), PPA (+102.45%), GEK TERNA (+102.06%), Jumbo (+91.65%), Alpha Bank (+89.45%), Sarantis (+81 .28%), Viohalco (+67.50%), Coca Cola HBC (+59.72%), Elvalhalcor (+40.90%), Lamda Developemtn (+35.82%), Motor Oil (+30.61%), OPAP (+28.90%) and Autohellas (+24.04%). The securities of Ellactor (+18.44%), ELPE (+13.02%), OTE (+7.42%) and Terna Energy (+0.41%) recorded smaller gains, while EYDAP is the only stock down 21.76%.