The Athens Stock Exchange has marked new 14-year highs, with buyers “throwing the biggest party” of 2025, given that yesterday’s session was the best (+2.58%) since the beginning of the year.
The General Index is close to 1,666 points, having relatively comfortably broken through the resistance of 1,650 points and having raised this year’s performance to +13.3%.
The banking index, reasonably, is largely credited with this jump. And not unfairly, if we consider that on the one hand it is strengthening above 1,600 points (a 9-year record), on the other hand it is gaining at least +25% compared to the beginning of January.
Strong fundamentals, business deals, generous dividends and financial stability constitute the basic ingredients of the ongoing stock market success, with the resistance of 1,700 points being the next big target – despite buying fatigue.
The expectation of the economy’s upgrade by Moody’s on Friday night is an ally. It is the only rating agency, which has still not upgraded the Greek economy.
The strong rally of the last few days and the constant outperformance compared to foreign markets, according to several analysts, support expectations for an immediate recovery of the investment grade. Something particularly important, given that Moody’s is the rating agency with the greatest influence on passive funds.
On the other hand, of course, no one should forget that we are going through a rather volatile period amid a war on trade tariffs and economic concerns, as well as developments in Ukraine.
In terms of corporate developments, all the lights are focused on the big deal between Piraeus and CVC for Ethniki Insurance. The agreement between the two parties concerns 90.01% of the shares of the insurance company, with the price amounting to 540 million euros (600 million euros based on 100%). Piraeus expects that the acquisition will increase earnings/share by approximately 5% and improve the return on tangible equity by approximately 1 percentage point.
At the same time, the focus remains on the financial figures of the previous 12 months, with Sarantis recording record sales of 600.1 million euros, as well as net profitability of 46 million euros (39.3 million euros in 2023). The management, at the same time, proposed the distribution of a dividend of 0.29 euros/share compared to 0.22 euros/share last year (+33.3%).
Autohellas achieved an improvement in net profits by +9.9% for 2024 (84.8 million euros), with the dividend amount reaching 0.85 euros from 0.7 euros last year.
Foreign markets
Volatility continues to dominate in foreign markets, while US President Donald Trump’s tariffs complicate economic balances and spark fears of a global trade war. However, we must note that Europe’s course is clearly better than that of Wall Street, where this year’s returns are almost zero – or even negative in some cases.
