Stock market: Profits up to 147% in the first half of 2021

The General Price Index closed with gains of 9.38% in the first half of January-May 2021, while the total market capitalization increased by 8.613 billion euros.

January closed with a fall of 7.35% to be followed by three months of rise (February + 5.73%, March + 9.17%, April + 5.24%), while a decline was recorded in May (-1.70%) and in June (-1.11%).

Perhaps the biggest gain of these first six months of 2021, is that Greek investors are gradually returning to the market, as at least recorded by code mobility, with active codes exceeding 36,000 in March and May, the best performance since the Summer of 2014.

In fact, March 2021 recorded the largest number of new codes that have been opened since December 2015, a fact that indicates that domestic investors have begun to look at the stock market again.

The market was supported by the growth prospects of the Greek economy with a continuous review towards the most positive of the GDP growth targets by the international investment houses, at the time when the processes related to the Recovery Fund are accelerating.

The banking index closed in the first half of the year with gains of 7.35%, with encouraging results for the first quarter of 2021 presented by the systemic banks, while the course of reducing NPEs was also important.

Of the 112 billion euros in non-performing loans at the end of 2015, which stood at 50% of total loans, they are at 31.4 billion euros and 26.1%, with the prospect of falling to 7.6 billion euros at the end of the year and one-digit MES index.

Bond markets are optimistic with the spread of the Greek 10-year bond against the corresponding German bund marking a new low for the post-2008 season a few weeks ago.