Monday, 24 August 2015 20:26
ATHENS: Greek stocks plunged more than 10 percent on Monday, succumbing to a Chinese-led rout on global markets and domestic political uncertainty ahead of likely elections next month.
The ATHEX exchange closed with a 10.54-percent loss, falling to 568.38 points — a three-year low. About a half hour before the close, it was down 11.3 percent.
Politics have dampened market sentiment as a new eurosceptic party set up by rebels from the ruling Syriza party was given a three-day mandate to form a government following the resignation of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week.
The Greek banking index fell over 22 percent and the top four banks lost between 21.7 and 26.5 percent, near the maximum allowed daily drop of 30 percent.
Over a dozen blue chip stocks including construction firms, telecoms giant OTE and main electricity provider PPC, suffered two-digit drops.
Six months of confrontational talks between Greece and its EU-IMF creditors before a bailout deal was reached on July 13 weighed heavily on the Athens stock exchange.
Capital controls were imposed when the talks broke down in June, and the stock market was shut down for five weeks, reopening on August 3 with a drop of over 22 percent.
