Market Comment - In the Spotlight (Manos Chatzidakis)

Friday, July 18, 2014

Market Monitor

Market Comment General index moved slightly higher yesterday for a fifth successive session closing at 1,190.27 points, up 0.02 pct, after falling as much as 1.26 pct during the day. Turnover was thin 79.62 million euros, of which 20.75 million were block trades in Aegean. Geopolitical unrest is likely to break the positive momentum in today’s session as investors may keep a conservative stance ahead of the weekend.  Finally we note that July futures expire today.         In the Spotlight Banking sector: ECB presented yesterday the process for disclosing the results of the AQR and stress tests of 128 European banks. According to the announcement the stress test is expected to take place in the second half of October. The Common Equity Tier I (CET1) threshold for the AQR is 8%. Individual bank templates will include an overview of their key financial figures, detailed AQR and stress test results and any other additional information such as any capital measures undertaken between 1 January and 30 September, 2014. Eurozone/CPI: Eurozone inflation stayed low as expected in June as falling prices of food and phone calls offset more expensive tobacco and restaurants, data showed on Thursday. Consumer prices in the 18 countries using the euro rose 0.1 percent on the month in June for a 0.5 percent year-on-year gain -- the same annual inflation rate as in May, data from the European Union's statistics office Eurostat showed. Consumer prices fell in Greece, Portugal and Slovakia in June and 5 countries had inflation at or above 1 percent, including Germany where prices rose 1.0 percent on the year. Cyprus: Cyprus wants to start talks with the European Central Bank on a debt swap that would ease the burden on the country’s largest lender. Piraeus Bank/Aegean Airlines:  Piraeus Bank sold yesterday its stake (4.7% - 3.3m of shares) in Aegean Airlines through an accelerated book building offer at a price of 6.23 euros per share. Vodafone/Forthnet (NOVA): Vodafone Group and Wind Hellas submitted a joint non-binding takeover bid to Forthnet’s BoD for acquiring all shares of Forthnet which are not owned by them, at an indicative and conditional price range of EUR1.70-1.90 per share. Aforementioned move should have no impact on OTE’s recent non-binding proposal to acquire  Forthnet’s NOVA pay-TV  business, Forthnet said. PPC:  PPC’s preferential access to lignite for power generation will be re-examined by the EU’s General Court, according to EU Court of Justice decision on the Greek company. Alpha Bank: The bank will release 1H/2Q:14 earnings results on Thursday 28 August after the closing of the ATHEX trading session. The respective conference call will take place at 18:00(GR Time). Hellenic Petroleum: The company announced the amendment of its 2014 Financial Calendar. The amendment refers to the date of the second quarter 2014 financial results release, which has been changed to Wednesday 30 July, after the closing of the local market.