Up 0.88%, the stock market ended the week ending with the market soaking up the bid for profit-taking after last week’s strong rally, which was the most profitable of 2024.

The market was supported by the upgrade of the Greek economy to BBB with stable prospects from BBB- with positive prospects from Scope Ratings, the first upgrade of the country within the investment grade and is taking place in a period of international turmoil and while strong countries are facing the degradation of their creditworthiness. The market expects further upgrades of the country’s credit rating from rating agencies in the new year.

Another positive report for the Greek economy and market. H big american investment bank JP Morgan recommends that investors avoid Eurozone markets. An exception is Greece, which it considers an attractive investment option within the Eurozone.

Greece remains overweight, due to expected large increases in dividends and yields, greater than 10%, as bank balance sheets look strong.

Bank valuations look cheap according to JP Morgan and in general it estimates that Greek stocks in general have room for a strong rise, while upgrading Greece from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating as higher growth than the Eurozone is expected, but also due to the consolidated balance sheets of the Greek banks.

JP Morgan remains overweight in the shares of the four systemic banks. The target prices are for Alpha Bank 2.5 euros, for Eurobank 3.2 euros, for Piraeus 6.2 euros and for National Bank 9.8 euros. JP Morgan highlights that Greek banks offer attractive dividend yields, with each of the major banks expected to offer at least an 8% dividend based on forecasts for 2025.

UBS is positive for Greek banks, as well as for the Greek economy. The Swiss investment house recommends the purchase of all four systemic banks.

UBS sets the target price for Ethniki at 11.2 euros, for Piraeus at 5.7 euros, for Alpha Bank at 2.4 euros and for Eurobank at 2.8 euros.

O General Price Indexn closed the week at 1,469.32 units, compared to 1,456.52 units of the previous week, marking a weekly increase of 0.88%, since the beginning of December it has gained 5.44%, while since the beginning of the year it has recorded gains of 13.62 %.

The FTSE/ASE 25 large-cap index closed the week up 0.92% and since the start of 2024 is up 14.78%.

The FTSE MID mid-cap index closed up 0.67% for the week, and is up 2.80% year-to-date.

The banking index closed the week with a rise of 1.37%, while since the beginning of 2024 it has gained 22.30%.

The total value of transactions in this week’s sessions was 669.920 million. euros, while the average daily transaction value was 133.981 million. euros against 142.424 million euro.

The total market capitalization for the week increased by 770 million. euros and amounted to 103.325 billion euros, while since the beginning of the year it has increased by 15.437 billion. euro.