ATHEX to open after five weeks
After more than a month, and 23 working days, of being closed, the Athens Exchange is set to reopen for trading, probably on Thursday, but with restrictions for Greek investors due to the capital controls that were imposed on June 28.
The European Central Bank assessed a proposals by the Greek monitoring authorities (the Bank of Greece and the Capital Market Commission) and gave the green light on Tuesday for the return to action of the domestic stock, bond and derivative markets, which are in their fifth week of holiday.
Up to late on Tuesday the BoG and the CMC were working on the final draft of the legislative act that will include all the details about how the stock exchange will operate, so that Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos can issue a ministerial decision on Wednesday announcing the reopening of the bourse on Thursday.
Greek and foreign traders are due to be informed on Thursday about the new terms of operation of the stock market through a statement by Hellenic Exchanges in cooperation with the market regulators.
The CMC is to convene early on Wednesday and announce when exactly the stock market will reopen. Its head, Costas Botopoulos, confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday that the bourse would open on Wednesday or Thursday but with restrictions to the transactions allowed to Greek traders for a small period of time.
Sources say that the restrictions to Greeks will concern the purchase and sale of shares, which can only be funded by stock sales, payment of new money, funds from abroad (bonds, money markets etc) or from existing credit at stockbrokerage firms.
The main limitation for Greeks is a ban on using their existing bank account balance. It remains to be seen whether Greeks will be able to transfer money to their stockbrokers’ accounts through e-banking or deposits. On the contrary, foreign investors can make sales and purchases without any restrictions, as they would be bringing in funds from abroad anyway.
Observers expect the first few sessions to be loss-making for the bourse, possibly close to the 30 percent limit down for many stocks, due to the complete lack of buyers.
