Greek stocks resumed their upward trend in the last trading session of the week in the Athens Stock Exchange on Friday, recovering a big part of Thursday’s losses. The composite index of the market surpassed the 1,000 level again to end at 1,014.53 points, up 2.74 pct, for a net gain of 4.17 pct in the week. It now stands 11.74 pct up so far this year.

Turnover was a moderate 69.243 million euros. The Big Cap index jumped 3.0 pct higher and the Mid Cap index ended 4.01 pct higher. All sector indexes ended higher with the Raw Materials (7.37 pct), Telecoms (7.10 pct) and Travel (4.16 pct) recording the biggest percentage gains of the day.

Mytilineos (8.16 pct), OTE (7.10 pct), Piraeus Port (6.12 pct) and Hellenic Exchanges (5.92 pct) were top gainers among blue chip stocks, while Eurobank (1.11 pct), National Bank (0.83 pct) and METKA (0.80 pct) suffered losses.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 116 to 56 with another 20 issues unchanged. Progressive (25.37 pct), Alfa Grissin (20 pct) and AAA (19.64 pct) were top gainers, while Fieratex (28.5 pct), Sato (20 pct) and Boutaris (16.67 pct) were top losers.

Sector indices ended as follows:

Industrials: +1.82%
Commercial: +1.17%
Construction: +2.20%
Oil & Gas: +3.08%
Personal & Household: +2.09%
Raw Materials: +7.37%
Travel & Leisure: +4.16%
Technology: +3.46%
Telecoms: +7.10
Banks: +1.45%
Food & Beverages: +0.44%
Health: +2.97%
Utilities: +3.45%
Financial Services: +4.87%

The stocks with the highest turnover were OPAP, OTE, PPC and Alpha Bank.

Selected shares from the FTSE/ASE-20 index closed in euros as follows:

Alpha Bank: 1.37
Public Power Corp (PPC): 7.73
HBC Coca Cola: 17.97
Hellenic Petroleum: 8.80
National Bank of Greece: 1.19
EFG Eurobank Ergasias: 0.62
OPAP: 6.56
OTE: 6.64
Bank of Piraeus: 0.31
Titan: 14.11

ADEX closing report

The March contract on the FTSE 20 index was trading at a premium of 1.69 pct in the Athens Derivatives Exchange on Friday, with turnover rising to 24.781 million euros. Volume on the Big Cap index totaled 5,863 contracts worth 9.994 million euros, with 34,533 open positions in the market.

Volume in futures contracts on equities totaled 47,444 contracts worth 14.787 million euros, with investment interest focusing on Alpha Bank’s contracts (16,973), followed by National Bank (3,672), Piraeus Bank (5,857), OTE (6,362), OPAP (5,805), Mytilineos (1,209), MIG (926), PPC (3,107), Intralot (442), Ellaktor (596), GEK (342), Sidenor (187) and Motor Oil (111).

Greek bond market closing report

The yield spread between the 10-year Greek and German benchmark bonds dropped further to 8.76 pct in the domestic electronic secondary bond market on Friday, from 9.10 pct on Thursday, with the Greek bond yielding 10.39 pct and the German Bund 1.63 pct. Turnover was a thin 4.0 million euros, of which 1.0 million were buy orders and the remaining 3.0 million euros were sell orders.

In interbank markets, interest rates were largely unchanged. The 12-month rate was 0.58 pct, the six-month rate was 0.35 pct, the three-month rate rose to 0.22 pct and the one-month rate was 0.11 pct.

Foreign Exchange rates

U.S. dollar 1.367
Pound sterling 0.864
Danish kroner 7.574
Swedish kroner 8.819
Japanese yen 124.55
Swiss franc 1.263
Norwegian kroner 7.535
Canadian dollar 1.375
Australian dollar 1.311

FINANCIAL NEWS

**** Greece’s trade deficit shrank by 20.2 pct in the January-November period last year, after falling by 22.2 pct in November, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Friday.

The ELSTAT statistics service said in a report that this development reflected a continuing shrinking of imports and a continuing growth in exports, although at a slightly slower rate.

The value of imports, excluding oils, totaled 2.422 billion euros in November, from 2.652 billion in November 2011, a decline of 8.7 pct.

The value of exports – excluding oils – totaled 1.533 billion euros, from 1.509 billion in November 2011, an increase of 1.6 pct. This left the country with a trade deficit of 889 million euros in November, from 1.143 billion euros in November 2011, a decline of 22.2 pct.

The value of imports – excluding oils – totaled 27.715 billion euros in January-November, down 7.0 pct from the same period in 2011, while the value of exports – excluding oils – totaled 15.654 billion euros, 6.7 pct higher from November 2011. The trade deficit totaled 12.061 billion euros in the 11-month period, down 20.2 pct from the same period in 2011.

**** Greek exports are expected to continue growing for the fourth consecutive year in 2013, rising by up to 10 pct, Alkiviadis Kalampokis, president and chief executive of the Hellenic Foreign Trade Board said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters in Thessaloniki, Kalampokis said that Greek exports grew by 10 pct in 2012 to 24.5 billion euros, exceeding initial forecasts and breaking 2011’s record of 20 billion euros.

**** Exports of textiles and clothing rose in the August-October period, a report by the Association of Textile/Ready Clothing Enterprises of Greece showed on Friday.

Exports of clothing grew 10.2 pct in the three-month period to 114.3 million euros, from 103.7 million euros in the corresponding period in 2011. Exports of textiles jumped 25.5 pct to 82.1 million euros over the same period.

The report, however, noted that exports of textiles and clothing remained negative in the 10-month period from January to October, with the value of exports down 11.8 pct to 411.3 million euros, from 466.3 million in the same period in 2011. Textile exports fell 8.9 pct to 309.2 million euros.

The report said that exports of textiles and clothing continued growing in the last two months of 2012 and predicted that 2013 could be a positive year for the sector, reversing several years of declines.

**** There has been a sharp reduction in the size (in terms of value) of Greece’s car rental market, according to the findings of an ICAP Group survey unveiled on Thursday. The survey showed that the rate of increase of the car rental market had slowed down significantly after 2008 and actually shrunk by 14 percent in 2011 over 2010.

The study includes short-term car rental and tourist rental (28 percent of the market) and long-term leases (72 percent of the market).

**** Taxpayers’ new net overdue debt to the Greek state rose significantly in 2012, totaling 13.178 billion euros. This was added to an existing overdue debt of 43.21 bln euros from past years, according to the Finance Ministry’s official data released on Thursday.

New overdue debt surpassed 1.0 bln euros in December, reflecting taxpayers’ inability to meet their tax obligations.

According to the ministry, of the 13.178 bln euros, the state collected 1.4 bln euros. Tax payers’ overdue debts to state until the end of 2011 totaled 43.421 bln euros; the state collected 1.099 bln euros of this, while another 371 million euros worth of debts were cancelled.

**** Greece’s public debt rose to 152.6 pct of the country’s GDP in the third quarter of 2012, from 149.2 pct in the second quarter, Eurostat said on Wednesday.

In the eurozone, the average public debt was 90 pct in the third quarter from 89.9 pct in the second quarter, while in the EU-27 the average debt was 85.1 pct from 80 pct over the same periods, respectively. Eurostat said that Cyprus (17.5 pct), Ireland (13.4 pct) and Spain (10.7 pct) recorded the biggest percentage increases in the third quarter, while Greece (11.1 pct), Hungary (4.8 pct) and Latvia (3.6 pct) recorded the highest reductions in the public debt.

****Tourist arrivals fell by 5.2 pct in the January-September period in 2012, reflecting lower arrivals from European Union states, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Wednesday.

In a report, the statistics service (ELSTAT) said that tourism arrivals from Europe (accounting for 90 pct of all arrivals in the country) fell by 5.2 pct in the nine-month period last year, while arrivals from the European Union fell by 8.3 pct.

Arrivals from Poland, France, Belgium, Germany, Bulgaria, Italy and Holland recorded the biggest percentage declines, while arrivals grew significantly from the UK and Russia.

Germany maintained its leading position in the list of incoming tourism in Greece with a 13.1 pct market share, followed by the UK (12.6 pct) and France (6.6 pct). Tourist arrivals fell significantly from the US, but rose from Asian countries.