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With any profit-taking moves offset by demand, as buying interest from foreign capital also remains strong, the Athens Stock Exchange is moving to nine-year highs, with YTD gains for Greek stocks now hovering around 20 billion euros and the General Index to be at the top of the world's returns, recording a 35% increase this year.

"Greek stocks and government bonds rally at the open as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis secured surprisingly strong support in Sunday's election, fueling optimism for market-friendly reforms." With these words, Bloomberg comments on the market's reaction to the election results.

The publication highlights that the centre-right New Democracy of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis received almost 41% of the vote against around 20% of the left-wing SYRIZA party of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. "While he failed to secure a majority in parliament, analysts are confident he will secure a one-party government in about a month, when new elections are expected to be held."

The Athens Stock Exchange's General Index rose as much as 6.7% early Monday, extending 2023 gains to 29%.

The investment grade

Bloomberg writes that the election was seen by analysts and investors as the last obstacle standing in the nation's path to regaining the investment grade it lost 13 years ago, and a Mitsotakis victory was seen as the most market-friendly outcome. In 2022, Greece's debt to GDP ratio fell faster than any other European country.

"The vote result puts Greece firmly on track to secure investment grade, possibly before the end of the year," commented Wolfango Piccoli, co-chairman of Teneo Intelligence in London. "While such an upgrade is largely discounted by investors, it will be an important moment as a stigma that has existed since late 2010 will disappear."

The yield on Greece's 10-year government bond fell about 9 basis points to 3.933%. The rate fell more than 100 basis points from last year's high, narrowing the spread significantly to 1.45.

The Greek stock market is moving upwards, with support from the international markets today, and is recording very good performances since the beginning of the new year.

The general index is moving with gains of 0.71% at 924.91 points, with the turnover already at 10 million euros.

The differentiation of the ATHEX vis-à-vis the turmoil of foreign markets is the talk of the town in recent days, culminating yesterday of course, when the turnover reached 100 million euros after many weeks. And this element showed that there is interest from buyers, even at levels that are close to the maximum range of multi-month accumulation.

And market performance in a period of instability abroad, only optimism can bring. What remains to be seen now is whether the ATHEX can continue the big test of 930 points, where it has been stopped many times in recent months. Otherwise, a pull back to the close support of 904 units is on the table.

In terms of securities now, PPC, Piraeus Bank, Hellenic Petroleum, Alpha Bank and Jumbo are leading the rise, while OPAP, Viohalko, OTE, Coca Cola, Eurobank, Ellactor and Mytilineos are also operating positively. On the other hand, the pressures are mainly located in Motor Oil, ELHA, Terna Energeiaki and Lambda.