ECONOMY

Greek stocks nosedive amid China jittters

Greek stocks nosedive amid China jittters

The Athens Stock Exchange experienced one of its worst days in the last few years on Monday, when the general index plummeted 10.54 percent to land at 558.38 points.

The sudden fall came amid concern about the impending snap elections but also due to the worsening global mood due to the economic downturn in China. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 was down 6.4 percent going into the close of trading, wiping off more than 500 billion euros from the index’s total market capitalization and reflecting its worst day since the post-Lehman Brothers collapse in October 2008.

Chinese stocks plunged more than 8 percent on Monday for their biggest one-day loss since 2007, after Beijing held back expected policy support at the weekend following last week’s 11 percent slide.

In Athens, banks led the downward slide with a dramatic decline of 22.7 percent. Piraeus Bank was the worst performer, giving up 23.7 percent, followed by Alpha Bank, down 21.7 percent.

Just one of the large-cap stocks managed to remain unchanged, while the other 24 fell by as much as 26.5 percent.

Turnover reached 39 million euros, which was marginally above the average for the last couple of weeks, when trading volumes have been thin.

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