Greek stocks plunge on talk of snap elections
The Athens Stock Exchange plummeted on Thursday as investors reacted to heightened speculation about snap elections in September, with bank shares particularly hard hit.
The general index closed at 651.56 points, which was 3.52 percent down from Wednesday.
This means the bourse has now dropped by more than 18 percent since it reopened on August 3 after the closure imposed when Greek banks shut down ahead of the July 5 referendum.
All of the country's four main banks saw their share value drop on Thursday.
Alpha Bank led the way with a decline of 14.66 percent.
It was followed by Piraeus, which fell 13.51 percent, Eurobank, down 12 percent, and National, which gave up 9.45 percent.
Turnover was under 30 billion euros, again.
Greek bonds declined on the expected announcement of snap elections.
Greece’s two-year note yield rose 136 basis points, or 1.36 percentage points, to 12.82 percent late on Thursday afternoon.
The 3.375 percent security due in July 2017 fell 1.895, or 18.95 euros per 1,000-euro face amount, to 84.915.
The yield on the securities climbed above 63 percent last month.
Greek 10-year bond yields added 10 basis points to 9.45 percent.
