The Athens Stock Exchange hit new highs for the year as the overall index broke the 1,133.11 mark that was this year’s (at the close) record set in early March before the international banking turmoil erupted.

The market received significant momentum from a rally in the banking sector and positive reports from international houses on the Greek economy and the domestic market, while trading activity, which was sluggish at the beginning of the session, is “waking up”, so investors are still not worried ahead of Sunday’s elections.

Thus, in the statistics of the session, the General Index closed with an increase of 1.32% at the level of 1136.44 points, and the turnover amounted to 97.5 million euros. The large-cap index edged up 1.7% to 2777.39, the mid-cap index closed up 0.73% to 1662.84, while the banking index rose 4.35% to 884. 13 points.

Turnover reached 97.5 million euros, while the high capitalization ratio increased by 1.7%.

Among the blue chips, Eurobank and National Bank stood out overall with growth of 5.27% and 5.06% respectively, followed by Piraeus Bank with +3.93%, Aegean with +2.83%, Alpha Bank with + 2.53% and OTE with +2.15% growth, while Biohalko, PPC, HELLENiQ ENERGY, Mytilineos, Quest, Sarantis, Titan and Autohellas registered growth of over 1%. On the other hand, losses of over 2% were recorded for Ellactor, followed by losses of over 1% for Jumbo and Motor Oil.

An important signal for Greek banks, maintaining yesterday’s strong results, was given by Goldman Sachs in a new analysis, recommending investors to increase positions in the AA sector, since from a macroeconomic point of view it is absolutely attractive globally, but also in the context of the emerging market region, while while its shares in Greek banks are already vastly undervalued.

As for the Greek stock market as a whole, Barclays made a serious “vote of confidence”. He noted that the domestic market has been on a steady upward trajectory over the past 12 months, outperforming the European MSCI index by almost 20%. Short-term political uncertainty could cause a bit of volatility as the main Greek index doesn’t seem particularly bothered by the polls. He noted that as Greece is poised to enter a new growth cycle, the gains for Greek stocks will be large.

In particular, the prospect of a stronger economy and continued structural reforms under the leadership of a business-friendly government will certainly bode well for the Greek stock market, given the heavy weight of the banking and cyclical sectors in the General Index, Barclays said. At the same time, he noted that revisions to earnings per share estimates for Greek listed companies in recent months have been stronger than for European listed companies on average over recent months, which likely explains some of the strong results. . Barclays is also absolutely positive about the outlook for the Greek bond market, believing it will soon catch up with other highly valued markets in the region such as Portugal, given that it is only a matter of time before Greece returns to investment grade. – that it can happen even in October.