Political turmoil sends stocks tumbling
The political uncertainty unleashed by the result of Sunday?s elections in Greece sent the vast majority of stocks on the local bourse sharply lower on Monday.
The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended the day at 643.87 points, tumbling 6.67 percent from Friday’s closing figure of 689.86 points. At one point in the first half-hour of trade it was down by 8.28 percent. The blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 20 index shed 7.96 percent to close at 242.60 points.
Banks led the decline among the blue chips, with Eurobank EFG suffering losses of 19.37 percent, followed by Alpha (down 19.23 percent). Mytilineos contracted by 17.60 percent and Hellenic Postbank fell 16.27 percent.
In total, 19 stocks recorded gains, 103 posted losses and 19 remained unchanged.
Turnover amounted to 45.8 million euros, up from last Friday’s 29.1 million.
