Generalized sell off in Greek stocks and bonds

of Alexandra Tombra

The decline that is recorded today by the Athens Stock Exchange is vertical, which is going full speed for the psychological limit of 800 points, or even for the lows of last March when it had received strong sell off waves again.

In particular, the General Index records losses of 4.57% at 823.09 points, while the turnover is at 53 million euros and the volume at 20 million units. The FTSE 25 also recorded a drop of 4.55%, to 1,984.33 points, while the banking index lost 6.04% to 533.09 points.

The international sell off was not enough and most of the uncertainties that the Greek market has to manage, came in recent days to add the increase of geopolitical risk in our neighborhood with the provocation of Turkey hitting “red”. Until now, Greek-Turkish relations may have been secondary, but no one forgets that the ATHEX was always influenced by tensions between the two countries.

There, stock market factors attribute the severity of the current ATHEX fall, although this does not mean that Greek assets are not in the crosshairs of leverage and risk reduction, a tactic that has been widely followed lately in world markets. And the shallowness of the Greek market makes even the smallest movements the cause of great turmoil throughout the dashboard.

The same is true for Greek bonds, with the Greek 10-year yield now jumping to 4.65%, much higher than it was when the ECB was forced to activate PEPP in March 2020 – and at the same level as end of 2017. A similar sell-off is noted by the other Greek bonds, with the 5-year period seeing its yield skyrocket to 3.63%.

The only thing that is certain is that if there is no movement at the institutional level to control the causes of inflation effectively, or if the central banks do not “invent” a new policy mix that does not adversely affect growth, then the period of major correction will not no way. And it is not excluded in the Greek market, which has remained at low levels, in contrast to the heights at which European or American markets are moving.

On the board

On the board now, Piraeus records losses of 7.67%, with Mytilineos, Lambda, Alpha Bank and Quest following with a drop of more than 6%. More than 5% is the fall in Ethniki, Eurobank, Motor Oil, IPTO, Hellenic Petroleum, GEK Terna, Terna Energy and ELHA.

The fall in PPC, OTE, PPA, Coca Cola and Aegean exceeds 4%, in Titan, Viohalko and EYDAP 3%, with Sarantis being at -2.65%. Over 1% is the drop in OPAP and Jumbo, with Ellactor being at -0.59%.