Day of the seller in the stock exchange

Last update 14:10

By Manos Haschladakis

The Athens market shows a corrective trend, with sellers maintaining a steady control over transactions, but without tension in their movements.

In particular, the general index moved to 1448.9 points, down by 0.65%.

The trading volume is 49 million euros, but 17.5 million relates to pre-agreed transactions, mainly in OPAP (13.8 million through two packages) with a transaction volume of 8.1 million pieces.

The banking index fell 0.3% to 1,288 points, the FTSE large-cap index fell 0.75% to 3,530 points, and the FTSEM medium index fell 0.35% to 2,302 points.

The market shows that it cannot deviate for a second day from the prevailing bearish tone on the European charts, or perhaps it finds an opportunity to move correctively in a strong July that saw only one bearish session in the last 9 (and a total of 2 in 11).

However, there does not seem to be any reason to dictate a trend change, which also indicates a low intensity of seller moves with trading volume on the board being very limited.

Conversely, the positive news for Athens Street continues, as UBS today initiated coverage of Greek banks, declaring it “buy” and saw a strong rally.

Internationally, Wall Street continued its upward march yesterday with the Dow Jones taking the record-breaking baton yesterday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell said the central bank would not expect inflation to fall below its 2% (target) to begin interest rate cuts and reiterated his assessment that the major risks to the country’s economy have passed.

The dance of US corporate earnings continues today with Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, health care giant UnitedHealth and Charles Schwab.

It is worth noting that Austriacard is trading today ex-dividend at €0.10 per share.

picture on dashboard

Only 4 stocks are moving higher on the FTSE, with GEK TERNA the best performer with a gain of just 0.45%, while AIA and TERNA Energy are marginally in the ‘green’ with gains of less than 0.15%.

In banks, Ethniki is trying to distinguish itself with small gains of 0.35% and Piraeus is unchanged, while Alpha is down 0.3% and Eurobank is down 0.8%.

Today’s corrective climate suggests that sellers are targeting Lambda, which rose almost 11% in July and is moving to -2% today.

PPC also posted losses of 1.8%, Metlen moved to -1.6%, Jumbo to -1.5%, OTE and Titanas to -1.3%, and Aegean, Elvalhalcor, Motor Oil, ELPE, Sarantis all down around 1.1%.

OPAP, which is at the top of the trading volume with large parcels, is moving slightly down to 15.51 euros, -0.6%.

In mid-cap, and contrary to today’s climate, Profilie is up 3.8% and Kri Kri is strengthening by 1.3%, while Intralot continues to decline today by -1%.

Attica Bank shares erased losses of up to 3.2% (€13.45) and are now slightly up 0.7% (€14) amid consistently high volatility ahead of the merger with Bank of Crete.

The big advantage for sellers is also confirmed in the overall picture of the board, with 78 stocks falling versus 37 rising.

Movements internationally

In the US, as mentioned above, all three indices closed higher yesterday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average also entering the record dance at 4,211 points now, while the futures market is showing mixed trends today.

Dow Jones futures were down slightly at -0.05%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.16% and the Nasdaq rose 0.2%.

In Europe, with Burberry down 16% yesterday, Hugo Boss opened more than 10% lower today after cutting its sales forecast and leading the indexes into a second day of correction.

The German DAX index fell by -0.5%, the French CAC 40 index by -0.76%, the British FTSE 100 index by -0.35%, and the European Stoxx 50 index by -0.6%.

However, bonds are siding with stocks as yields continue to fall, with the French 10-year yield at 3.082%, the German at 2.434% and the US at 4.178%, while Greek bonds saw a 3.4% decline (3.383%).

Finally, oil prices followed a moderate downtrend, with Brent crude at $84 per barrel and WTI at $81.