Slide accelerates again for Greek stocks and bonds
Greek securities sank afresh on Thursday as panic selling in stocks and bonds led the bourse benchmark’s total losses over the last three sessions to 20 percent, with 13 billion euros wiped off the value of Greek shares, while 10-year sovereign bond yields soared over 9 percent.
The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 827.98 points, shedding 7.35 percent from Wednesday’s 893.71 points. The large-cap FTSE/ATHEX 25 index contracted 7.69 percent to end at 266.34 points.
Successive statements by independent MPs saying they would not support the government candidate for the presidency and a torrent of international reports pointing at the risk the economy runs should main opposition SYRIZA come to power accelerated losses yesterday after the tide had temporarily subsided on Wednesday. The domino effect reached most European markets, given that fresh eurozone problems are growing increasingly likely.
As usual banks were at the focus of sales, with the index giving up 8.82 percent. Nine blue chips dropped more than 10 percent, with Piraeus Port Authority shedding 14.44 percent, Piraeus Bank falling 13.89 percent and GEK Terna losing 13.22 percent. Motor Oil bucked the trend, adding 0.44 percent.
In total 21 stocks registered gains, 104 suffered losses and 16 remained unchanged. Turnover amounted to 175.5 million euros, up from Wednesday’s 169.2 million.
The 10-year Greek bond yield surged to its highest point since last January at 9.17 percent, while the three-year bond rate soared 1.19 percent (119 basis points) to 10.61 percent and the five-year paper to 9.68 percent adding 103 bps.
The drop in the value of ATHEX bank stocks has led to the loss of as much as 10 billion euros for the holdings of bank bailout fund HFSF since the start of the year, as the net present value of the four systemic banks’ stocks has fallen to 13 billion euros, against 23 billion at the start of 2014.
