Greek banking stocks plunged for a second successive day but almost all other blue chip shares rose after the five-week shutdown of the exchange.

And in a further move offering a sign of progress Finance Minister
Euclid Tsakalotos said he expected all issues with lenders to be concluded this week.

The banking index crashed to its limit of 30 percent at which point trading is halted. The main index closed down 1.22 percent.

“The second day of trading showed clear signs that we are moving towards a normalization of the exchange market after a month without transactions. Already all the sectors and the indexes that represent these sectors have been moving in a positive direction with the exception of three – the banking, the food and health sectors,” explained Socrates Lazardis Hellenic Exchanges CEO.

The blue-chip retail sector was up nearly 6 percent, gaming group OPAP, 4.5 percent and Aegean Airlines 8.1 percent.

Even so stocks have fallen to roughly the level they were