Athens bourse down on poll talk
The Athens Stock Exchange plummeted Thursday on 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 yesterday. 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.
