The Greek Stock Exchange is here

Written by the Apostle Menthos

The huge success of Athens International Airport's public registration and listing on the stock exchange last Wednesday was absolutely overwhelming. Personally, as a thirty-year-old fanatical advocate and supporter of the huge potential that the stock exchange can have in supporting and developing the Greek economy, I was really happy. The day on which the Athens International Airport crossed the threshold of the stock exchange is more than historic, not only because it attracted in the IPO offers exceeding 8 billion euros (!), exceeding the requested amount by 12 times, nor because entry is considered a company like this one, which has Its capital is 2.76 billion euros, the largest in the past 18 years, which leads to a profound improvement in the Greek capital market, but because this step gave a resounding message to everyone that the Greek Stock Exchange is here ready to offer to the country’s economy what “some” did not allow it to do. Providing it for years. In fact, as time passed, his presence became more and more deafening. The mere fact that more than €4 billion has been raised in recent months through the stock market speaks volumes about its enormous potential for strategic financing of the economy. Meanwhile, the country's investment power is growing day by day, as foreign investors are constantly buying up Greece. This can be seen not only by the great interest in the growing presence of foreign institutions in investment campaigns in recent months, but also by the “hustle” caused by the new joint issuance of 10-year bonds. Which was covered 9 times, and the offer exceeded 35 billion euros. This is a force that is expected to become more evident as the time approaches when the stock market returns to developed markets.

We now move on to the schematic analysis of Athens International Airport (IAA), although it is still “new” on the board, it appears on the 8-minute price chart it created, according to the indicators we get from the Range Profile indicator, two rules Strong for buyers. The first is at the level of 9.20 to 9.16 euros and the second is in the range of 9.28 to 9.34 euros. We will exclude the trading volume that occurred at Wednesday's opening of €9.40. Therefore, in the upcoming meetings, the question for buyers is not to lose the variation range of around 1.10% between EUR 9.34 and EUR 9.16 with the daily close. As long as this zone is maintained, upward movement forces in the stock price will develop above the highs of €9.56 and towards the psychological limit of €10. From the point of view of fundamental data, in the ninth month of 2023 AIA provided profits after tax of 188.7 million euros, while it brought to its shareholders a profit of 168 million euros for the whole of 2022 and for the whole year. 2021 profits 158.8 million euros. Athens Airport, which connects Greece to 155 cities around the world, received more than 28.2 million passengers in 2023, equivalent to a +24% increase compared to the previous year, including 19 million coming from abroad. However, total passenger traffic at Athens Airport during January 2024 has already reached 1.6 million, an increase of 10.7% compared to January 2023 levels, when the number of passengers reached 1.45 million. The company is expected to go live from February 14 on the FTSE indices, with what that will do. This means an increase in demand and the stock price.

Of course, there is also the biggest winner from the Athens International Airport entry, the Hellenic Stock Exchange (HEXAE), which has added another €2.76 billion stock to its quiver. AIA has already realized in just two days, since the article was written on Thursday, a total volume of 12 million shares, which corresponds to a turnover of 112 million euros. As we wrote again in previous analyses, in the next two years we expect a lot of positive news from HEXA, while we hope that the entry of AIA will attract other companies to the exchange. Graphically, the stock appears to have gained momentum in the resistance area of ​​€6.20 to €6.24. But be careful, because above that opens the long-term path to EUR 7.60.

I conclude schematically with two more collections that will be “worn” a lot this year as well, while they will be further enhanced by the creation of the tourism sector of the exchange. Aegean Airlines (ARAIG) and its “companion” shareholders, Autohellas (OTOEL). Thus, while the Aegean stock on the semi-weekly price chart shows that it has broken above the €12.10 resistance level and is looking away to its 2023 highs of €13.80, the Autohellas stock has only broken higher in recent weeks with a bearish “R” of €13.20. EUR and heading towards the next line at EUR 14.76 to EUR 15.

* Apostolos Manthos is responsible for technical analysis and investment strategy

*Republished from Kivalio newspaper