Greek stocks came under strong selling pressure in the last trading session of the week in the Athens Stock Exchange, hit by domestic uncertainties and signs of a new crisis in emerging markets. The composite index of the market dropped 3.21 pct to end at 1,183.99 points, for a net loss of 6.66 pct in the week. The index is up only 1.83 pct so far this year. Turnover was a moderate 82.33 million euros.

The Large Cap index dropped 3.40 pct and the Mid Cap index ended 2.29 pct lower. All sectors moved lower with the exception of the Travel sector which ended 0.29 pct higher. Media (5.67 pct), Banks (5.54 pct), Food (4.06 pct) and Financial Services (4.06 pct) suffered the heaviest percentage losses of the day.

OPAP (1.12 pct) was the only blue chip stock to end higher, while Intralot (7.08 pct), Piraeus Bank (6.59 pct), MIG (5.73 pct), National Bank (5.41 pct) and Alpha Bank (4.58 pct) suffered heavy losses.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 101 to 39 with another 21 issues unchanged. Sato (16.56 pct), Boutaris (14.0 pct) and Lavipharm (10.64 pct) were top gainers, while Mathios (10.60 pct), Sarantopoulos Mills (10 pct) and Moda Bagno (10 pct) were top losers.

Sector indices ended as follows:

Insurance: Unchanged
Industrial Products: -2.01%
Commercial: -0.47%
Construction: -3.01%
Media: -5.67%
Oil & Gas: -1.51%
Personal & Household: -2.58%
Raw Materials: -3.74%
Travel & Leisure: +0.29%
Technology: -2.59%
Telecoms: -3.92%
Banks: -5.54%
Food & Beverages: -4.06%
Health: -4.03%
Utilities: -3.46%
Financial Services: -4.06%
Chemicals: -2.36%
Real Estate: -0.33%

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

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

Alpha Bank: 0.64
Public Power Corp (PPC): 9.90
Coca Cola HBC: 20.59
Hellenic Petroleum: 7.30
National Bank of Greece: 3.67
Eurobank Properties : 7.15
OPAP: 9.97
OTE: 10.30
Piraeus Bank: 1.70
Titan: 19.99

ADEX closing report

The February contract on the FTSE/ASE Large Cap index was trading at a discount of 0.92 pct in the Athens Derivative Exchange on Friday, with turnover totaling 22.432 million euros. Volume on the Big Cap index totaled 7,213 contracts worth 14.187 million euros, with 46,520 open positions in the market.

Volume in futures contracts on equities totaled 17,535 contracts worth 8.245 million euros, with investment interest focusing on Piraeus Bank’s contracts (3,561), followed by Alpha Bank (2,815), National Bank (2,400), MIG (1,196), OTE (1,864), PPC(1,323), OPAP (1,099), Hellenic Exchanges (242), Mytilineos (664), Hellenic Petroleum (500), Athens Water (221), GEK (290), Ellaktor (402), Intralot (243) and Metka (154).

Greek bond market closing report‏

The yield spread between the 10-year Greek and German benchmark bonds widened further to reach 6.84 pct in the domestic electronic secondary bond market on Friday, from 6.64 pct the previous day, with the Greek bond yielding 8.50 pct and the German Bund 1.66 pct. Turnover was a thin 7.0 million euros, of which 6.0 million were sell orders and the remaining 1.0 million euros was one buy order.

In interbank markets, interest rates moved higher. The 12-month rate rose to 0.575 pct from 0.570 pct, the nine-month rate rose to 0.498 pct from 0.495 pct, the six-month rate edged up to 0.407 pct from 0.404 pct, the three-month rate rose to 0.304 pct from 0.300 pct and the one-month rate was unchanged at 0.241 pct.

Foreign Exchange

U.S. dollar 1.389
Pound sterling 0.841
Danish kroner 7.574
Swedish kroner 8.952
Japanese yen 142.28
Swiss franc 1.244
Norwegian kroner 8.517
Canadian dollar 1.536
Australian dollar 1.595

FINANCIAL NEWS

**** Greece has made real progress in 2013, therefore the delay in the release of the next loan tranche is questionable, Alpha Bank’s analysts said on Friday.

“Two of the most striking developments in the Greek economy in 2013 were the totally successful restructuring and recapitalization of the banking system of the country and the better-than-expected execution of the central government budget in 2013, with a primary surplus of over 1.5 billion euros (0.8 percent of GDP),” according to Alpha Bank’s weekly bulletin.

“Based on the above-mentioned developments, as well as the smaller drop of the GDP in 2013, and the fact that recovery will probably be stronger than the troika estimated for 2014, there are serious questions raised as to the causes of the new delays in the disbursement of the agreed loan tranches,” it said.

“What is certain is that these new significant delays affect the country’s economic recovery, have a negative impact on the progress of the restoration of confidence in the Greek banking system and prevent the return of deposits in the country,” it warned.

**** Oil products “saved” the country’s trade balance for one more month in November, with the trade deficit falling by 2.4 pct in the month (excluding oil products the trade deficit widened by 25 pct in November), while in the January-November period the trade deficit fell by 12 pct (including oil products) and by 6.7 pct (excluding oil products).

Hellenic Statistical Authority, in a report releasd on Friday, said that the value of import-arrivals totaled 3.680 billion euros in November, down 15.3 pct from the same month in 2012 (excluding oil products the value of imports grew by 4.4 pct).

**** Premium production in the Greek insurance market fell by 9.7 pct in the January-November period last year, compared with the corresponding period in 2012, the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies said on Thursday.

In a report, the Association said that life insurance contracts totaled 1,472,294,686 euros, down 15 pct compared with the same period in 2012, while damage contracts totaled 2,024,557,926 euros, down 5.5 pct over the same period. Vehicle insurance contracts fell 6.6 pct in the 11-month period.

Life insurance contracts grew by 4.1 pct in November 2013, compared with the same month in 2012, the third month of growth in the category, after August (+5.5 pct) and September (+11 pct).

**** The Greek government on Wednesday presented a primary surplus of 603 million euros in its 2013 budget, from a primary deficit of 3.464 billion euros in 2012 and a revised target for a primary surplus of 15 million euros, the finance ministry said in a statement.

The general government’s cash deficit in the January-December 2013 period totaled 5.441 billion euros, from a shortfall of 15.688 billion euros in the previous year and a revised target for a deficit of 6.085 billion euros. Net state budget revenue was 53.018 billion euros, down 0.4 pct compared with a revised target.

The finance ministry attributed this development exclusively to the revenues of the Public Investments Programme in December, which totaled 173 million euros, down 76.1 pct from budget targets, reflecting a delay in the disbursement of money from the European Union.

Net regular budget revenues totaled 48.423 billion euros, up 0.7 pct from budget targets. Tax proceeds totaled 44.614 billion euros, up 211 million euros from budget targets. More analytically, property taxes surpassed a revised target by 7.4 pct, direct tax proceeds surpassed targets by 5.1 pct, VAT proceeds were 3.2 pct up from targets, car/motorcycle registration fees were up 7.5 pct and other non-tax revenues grew by 4.6 pct more than budget targets for the year.

On the other hand, income tax proceeds fell short by 0.7 pct, direct tax proceeds were 2.9 pct lower than estimated, VAT and special consumption tax on tobacco fell short by 4.5 pct and 4.9 pct, respectively, while VAT on oil products was 4.3 pct lower than estimates.

The finance ministry said that revenues met targets for the first time in the last five years and noted that tax returns totaled 3.105 billion euros, up 7.0 pct from budget targets.

State budget spending totaled 51.809 billion euros, down 868 million euros from budget targets. Regular budget spending fell 15.8 pct in 2013. Public Investments Programme spending totaled 6.65 billion euros, up 8.8 pct from 2012

*** Wage cost for employees in the wider public sector fell in the third quarter of 2013, according to national statistics service’s data on Wednesday.

Compensation of employees came to 5.299 billion euros (21.2 pct of total expenditures ) in the third quarter 2013, or approximately 700 million euros lower than the third quarter 2012 when it amounted to 5.903 billion euros (21.3 pct of total expenditure). It also fell approximately 1.2 billion euros compared to the third quarter 2011 (6.411 billion euros or 23.7 pct of total costs).

Social benefits were limited to 9.513 billion euros (38.1 pct of total expenditure) in the third quarter 2013, versus 10.453 billion euros (37.6 pct) in the same quarter of 2012 and 11.727 billion euros ( 43.3 pct) in 2011.

Subsidies from the state fell to 86 million euros (0.3 pct of total expenditure) for the same period versus 214 million euros (0.8 pct) in 2012 and 273 million euros (1.0 pct) in 2011.

**** Greece’s public debt (General Government debt) rose by 341 million euros at the end of the third quarter 2013 to 317.31 billion euros compared to 317 billion euros at the end of the second quarter, according to data announced by Eurostat on Wednesday.

Debt, as a percentage of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), rose to 171.8 percent from 168.8 percent at the end of the second quarter.