The Athens Index ended above 1570 units for the first time since last October, posting marginal gains on Thursday, regardless banks’ weakness for a second consecutive session.
The trend is determined by the market’s attempt to adapt to the new conditions, introduced by the new tax bill. In the wake of this development, shares of Motor Oil, OPAP, PPC etc outperformed during the last two sessions.
New reports of foreign and domestic analysts confirmed the positive impact of the new taxation. Deutsche Bank estimates that there will be an expansion of earnings and cash flows, helping the market to move higher. Alpha Finance expects the majority of listed companies to revisit their dividend policy.
Marfin Analysis commented that the new draft tax bill boosted stocks “with high dividend payout ratio, setting aside, at least for the moment, the banking sector”.
“Awaited upgrades in EPS and target prices, could rerate several major caps. Yet, part of the ytd accession was buttressed by the above mentioned assumption”, Marfin added.
"While not a sparkling session, it was logical to see some pressure and at least the 200-day moving average withstood the pressure which means the technicals are intact," Dimitris Tzavaras, analyst at Pegasus Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.
"It’s difficult to say if the market will hold these gains since there were made on few changes to fundamentals, but I anticipate a positive start on Friday," he added.
Across the board, the General Index ended at 1570.05 units, up 0.14% in a turnover of EUR122.3mn. A total amount of 92 shares rose, 75 declined and 118 remained unchanged.
