Stocks may dip, eyes on EU summit
Greek stocks may head south today with last week’s strong performances prompting some investors to continue Friday’s profit-taking. The Athens bourse’s benchmark general index ended at 1,506.32 points on Friday, retreating 2.34 percent, but gaining 4.6 percent for the week, supported by rally in global markets. The S&P 500 on Wall Street closed on Friday at its highest level since September 2008 and the Nasdaq scored its best finish since late December 2007. Analysts, however, are split about the duration of the positive run. Some see gains on global markets continuing until the end of the year while others expect the market to soon start running out of steam. This week’s European Union summit may provide some market-moving news for Greek stocks. Prime Minister George Papandreou will be among those attending a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday that is expected to pave the way for the creation of the European Stability Mechanism from 2013. The ESM is to make it possible for private sector investors to take a loss in case of a sovereign debt restructuring, which will put market pressure on governments to conduct sound fiscal policies and prevent another sovereign debt crisis.
