High yields, attractive shares, strong profitability, generous dividends.
These are some of the assets that the Athens Stock Exchange now offers, in an effort to attract new investors, to upgrade its status and to make one more step towards a total comeback.
The 10 assets:
- Returns: The General Index climbed four months ago to 1,502 points, which so far represents the highest level of the year and the highest level since 2011, reaching a value three times higher than the lows of the pandemic period. Despite the mini-correction (-4%) that took place over the summer, it still offers a return of over 11% through 2024, while the gains are even bigger if the comparison is extended over time.
- Capitalization: All this is reasonably reflected in the total capitalization of the domestic market, which – for the first time since the outbreak of the multi-year financial crisis – is again close to 100 billion euros.
- Turnover: The daily turnover is yet another quantitative criterion for upgrading the stock exchange profile of Athens. Despite the fact that the summer months have somewhat affected this year’s average, it continues to be consistently above 100 million euros per day.
- Banks: The cumulative value of the four systemic banks reaches 23 billion euros.
- Profitability: The financial results of the listed companies certainly reminded the strong profitability of the past, with 2023 offering the highest profits since the 2007 record (around 10.5 billion euros), surpassing even the 10.4 billion euros of 2022. And the most important thing is that the outlook remains positive for this year as well, where the majority of the listed companies that have already announced half-year results record improved figures (+15.6% in net profits).
- Dividends: Booming profitability justifiably translates into high dividends, with listed companies distributing more than 2.9 billion euros in 2023, while for 2024 shareholder rewards are estimated to even exceed 4 billion euros.
- Attractiveness: Strong financials and successive shareholder rewards, despite the impressive rally of the last days, still keep Greek stock valuations at particularly attractive levels, with the P/E ratio around single digits (below 10x).
- Environment: Of course, none of the above would have come true without ensuring a steadily rising macroeconomic framework. Achieving sustainable growth of more than 2% of GDP per year provides a strong “boost” to the Greek capital market.
- Investment grade: So has the investment grade recovery, with upgrades from Fitch, Standard & Poor’s, DBRS and Scope signaling an end to a long period of unreliability for government bonds. The total comeback is very likely to be completed in a few days, when Moody’s will upgrade Greece to investment grade.
- IPOs: With all the above factors in mind, it is reasonable and justified to finally see more IPOs, i.e. Initial Public Offerings, after several years of delistings and exits.
