Athens bourse among the world's top performing markets in 2019
The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) stands at the top of the world stock market performance charts for 2019, gaining 43.91 pct in a sustained rebound between January and October that has helped the market recoup many of the losses incurred in the previous five years, analysts reported on Sunday.
This was led by an impressive recovery of banking stock (with the sector up 101.59 pct to reach a 15-month high) and a 13.121-billion-euro increase in its capitalisation since the start of the year.
The market's upward momentum has peaked after the European elections, when it became apparent that New Democracy would win the next general elections. The bullish climate was further enhanced by a climate of euphoria over the decline in Greek state bond yields, which are continuing their decline to historically low levels.
According to analysts, however, the recovery of the Greek bourse has not quite matched that of the bond market as big institutional investors are preferring to adopt more defensive strategies on the ASE.
Over the 10-month period, the general index of the ASE has gained 269.27 points to reach 882.57 points, up from 613,30 points at the end of 2018. Total capitalisation has risen to 58.391 billion euros from 45.272 billion euros in that time. The total capitalisation of the four systemic banks over this period has increased by 6.214 billion euros, more than doubling from 4.251 billion euros at the end of 2018 to 10.465 billion euros at the end of October.
All sector indices apart from Health (-2.17 pct) have posted gains since the start of the year, with especially high gains for the banking sector, Raw Materials (103.67 pct) and Public Utilities (64.28 pct).