The Athens Stock Exchange traded with significant profits and strong turnover, supported by particularly strong buying interest in foreign and domestic portfolios due to the imminent restoration of Greece’s investment rating. A flurry of positive comments from rating agencies and investment banks last week has given the market significant air and investors are rushing to build on the very positive story the country is already presenting.

“We’re still at the stage where some people who haven’t entered the market are saying the valuations are unattractive and things will get better, while some others are buying stocks that have been left behind. And Monday’s sellers are again considering buying. The fact is that every day we have inflows that gradually repeat 2013 with the prospect of a mini-1999,” notes Ilias Zacharakis from Fast Finance. In the statistics of the session, the General Index closed up by 1.54% to 1220.89 points, and the turnover amounted to 152.1 million euros. The Large Cap Index closed up 1.73% to 2977 points, the Mid Cap Index closed up +2% to 1791.89 points, and the Banking Index gained 3.10% to 1001.72 points. Over the week, the general index increased by 7.82%, and the banking index – by 13.64%.

If stocks are “better-than-expected, worth a higher valuation,” something similar happened in the market after last Sunday’s election results, said Manos Hatsidakis, head of research at Beta Securities. Tensions and continued gains during the week arose as party alignments moved outside the polling range, reducing the risk of mismanagement. The analyst concludes that what the market priced last week means the country will be closer to investment grade, justifying a larger positive review not just of stock market valuations, but of the entire Greek universe of bonds and securities.