It's not the first time that the Financial Times has published information that Athens then immediately denies. In March, the UK daily declared that the government had gone to China to seek potential investors for fear of not raising sufficient funds in an auction.

Today the FT ran a front-page article claiming that the Qatar fund could increase its participation in the National Bank of Greece to 6-7% (for an investment of 250 million euros). At the moment, it holds less than 1% of NBG, and 4% of Alpha Bank. The Greek Prime Minister had fuelled rumours in an interview on Canadian television when he declared that some sovereign funds were interested in Greek banks.

On its website however, National Bank of Greece has denied any capital increase that would favour a particular investor. "The bank has a sound financial base and has no need of additional capital." The information published by the FT pushed up the share price of Greek banks this morning, nevertheless. On the opening of the Athens stock exchange, NBG gained 3.1%, while Alpha Bank gained 3.4%.