 |
|
|
|
The improvement shown by the basic macroeconomic indexes along with positive future expectations, were the two main factors that have contributed to the high activity in the Greek capital market in 1998.
The expectation that Greece will join EMU by 2001, and the introduction of the Greek drachma to the ERM, along with the decrease in inflation and interest rates, have attracted many institutional investors into the Greek market.
The above factors along with the privatization of state owned enterprises contributed to the increased investment interest into Greek bonds and stocks since the present value of expected profits of Greek businesses had risen.
1998 was a record breaking year for the Athens stock exchange with the General Index closing at 2737 points, representing a 84.7% increase in comparison with 1997. This was one of the best performances in the world (the best within the OECD countries and second best globally) beating the European Union average (25.3%), the Asian countries average (2.7%), North American (29.5%) and the World Index (28.1%) composed by the Financial Times.
|
Sector perfomances
|
| Indexes |
Closing 31/12/98 |
Lowest |
Highest |
% change since 2/1/98 |
| General |
2737.6 |
1380.1 |
2825.5 |
84.7 |
| Banks |
5799.4 |
1956.1 |
5799.4 |
152.1 |
| Insurance |
1290.9 |
712.5 |
1291.7 |
72.6 |
| Leasing |
343.1 |
197.9 |
478.1 |
32.8 |
| Investment |
876.5 |
565.5 |
925.1 |
46.4 |
| Industrial |
1714.1 |
1162.8 |
2013.1 |
47.4 |
| Miscellaneous |
1897.3 |
988.1 |
2019.9 |
92.1 |
| Construction |
502.2 |
346.4 |
610.9 |
10.4 |
| Holdings |
2156.0 |
1273.4 |
2520.8 |
65.2 |
| Parallel market |
208.7 |
78.4 |
209.0 |
164.8 |
| FTSE/ASE-20 |
1724.2 |
1693.7 |
1724.2 |
103.6 |
|
| Source : Athens Stock Exchange |
As can be seen from the table above, the banking sector was the best performing sector with 152% increase in comparison with the previous year, followed by the miscellaneous sector (92%), the insurance (72%) and holdings (65%).The parallel market, which is a market comprised mainly by small cap companies, had boomed to a record breaking high of 165%.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Market capitalization
|
|
 |
The market capitalisation during 1998 was 22.8 trillion GRD, representing an increase of 133% in comparison with 1997 and an almost sixfold increase since 1996. This increase was mainly attributed to the increase of share prices, the increase in share capital of listed companies and new listings of major companies such as OTE (the Greek telecommunications company), Greek Petroleum S.A., Panafon Hellas S.A. etc. |
|
|
 |
|
|
Volume of transactions
|
|
|
The positive economic outlook of the country along with promising future expectations have had a positive influence on the volume of transactions of stock broking companies. As shown in the graph, the volume of transactions concluded by members of the Athens Stock Exchange has increased by more than ten times during the last four years with an annual average increase of 82%, the biggest part of which has occurred during the 1997-98 period. |
|
|
 |
|
|
