The Athens Stock Exchange closed with moderate losses as, despite pressure throughout the session, the market managed to clear protection at the lows of the day. Thus, the General Index recorded a fall of 0.27% and closed at 893.74 points, and the turnover amounted to 33.91 million euros. The Large Cap Index fell 0.30% to 2158.35 with a marginal gain of 0.01% to 1398.53, the Mid Cap Index closed and the Banking Index fell 0.51% to 586.29. Of all the blue chips, Quest stood out with +4.19%, while Alpha Bank, Coca-Cola, Lamda, ADMIE and PPC recorded losses of more than 1%.

XA shares outperformed given skyrocketing natural gas prices and a strong uptrend in wholesale electricity prices on the Energy Exchange, said Beta Securities’ Manos Hatzidakis. The influx of tourists is supporting this year’s earnings, while corporate profitability and rapid business development are keeping interest high in the stock exchange, always in line with the seasonal proportions introduced in August, the analyst adds.

The overall index fell 0.27% to close at 893.74.

Bearish trends prevailed in European markets shortly before the close. In London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.53%, the DAX in Frankfurt was down 2.08%, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 1.60%, the FTSE MIB was down 2.30% in Milan and the IBEX in Madrid was down 1. 56%. Government bond yields strengthened, as did the euro, on the occasion of a Reuters report. Based on this, the ECB at its next meeting in September will discuss a possible increase in the key interest rate by 75 basis points. Some of its leaders are reportedly willing to discuss such a move, even if the risk of a recession looms due to a worsening inflation outlook.

This was reported to Reuters by informed sources. The euro strengthened against the dollar to $1.0063, regaining ground lost in previous days, and the yield on two-year German bonds was 0.99%.