Athens stock prices at particularly low levels
After Monday?s public holiday, the Athens bourse reopens on Tuesday aiming to capitalize on the gains on European and US markets as well as on news of an Italian and Spanish bond-buying spree by the European Central Bank on Monday.
The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index will start Tuesday?s session at 991.14 points, having lost 6.67 percent of its value last week.
Since the start of the year it has contracted by almost 30 percent (29.9 percent), after the second week in succession that none of the sectoral indices posted gains.
With investors keeping an eye on the meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, market observers suggest that local stocks are at a particularly low point, with the bourse?s capitalization amounting to just 17 percent of the country?s gross domestic product and therefore offering prospective buyers the opportunity for some significant capital gains in the medium term.