ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE

Through 8 share capital hikes in 2021 - with the top ones of PPC and Piraeus Bank - the listed companies raised a total of 3.7 billion euros. This is the largest amount since 2007, when MIG tapped the market for a massive 5.19 billion euros.

This is a new economic reality, where on the one hand, the bourse’s general index has not been able to break away from the 900-point mark for months, while on the other hand, many blue and mid cap companies have reported their strongest earnings figures.

Over a period of five years, ie until the fiscal year 2026, the company forecasts that profits before taxes from 67 million euros to 924 million euros, marking an increase of 1,279.1%.

At the same time, important developments are underway for the first half of 2022, with new listings to the Alternative Market, two new shipping bonds, while for the first time a large food retailer will also issue a bond.

The selection of companies that will make up the first ESG Index was made with the help of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA).

It is noted that since the end of 2019 the general index has lost 14.1%, blue chips dipped 18% while bank shares gave up 44.2%, the worst performers of the market.

From the misery of low volumes seen in previous months, the market has passed to daily transactions approaching or exceeding 100 million euros.

As of November 6, the profits of the banking index exceed 60%, while a jump of 23.6% has been recorded by the General Index, an increase accompanied by a large increase in trading activity.

Expectations for a return to normalcy, following the positive developments on the vaccine front. The faster return of economies to normalcy will allow for more efficient management of loans where payments have been temporary frozen on debt reaching 20 billion euros.

Through the adventurous history of Greece’s participation in the MSCI indices, the initially promising - and subsequently disappointing - course of the ATHEX is written out with great clarity, as the Greek MSCI has yielded only 3.5% since 2005, while profits from the two key MSCI indices exceed 250%.