The sellers are sweeping the international markets and the Athens Stock Exchange

The recent decisions of the central banks (after the Fed yesterday, today BoE and SNB took the baton) to further tighten their monetary policy, with the Athens Stock Exchange not being able to differentiate, brought the markets of Europe and the USA to the deep red. an environment so mined by development concerns.

In particular, the General Index closed with a fall of 2.82% at 815.27 points, while today it moved between 837.41 points (-0.18%) and 813.60 points (-3.02%). The turnover amounted to 81.66 million euros and the volume to 28.28 million units, while 647.95 thousand units were traded through pre-agreed transactions.

The index of high capitalization closed with a fall of 3.09%, at 1,965.49 points, while at -3.21% Mid Cap completed the transactions at 1,255.47 points. The banking index closed with losses of 5.11% at 518.46 points.

At the same time, the Stoxx 600 index plunged 2.3% to 403.54 points. The pan-European index is heading for the lowest closing since February 2021. The German DAX drops 2.85% to 13,101.01 points, the French CAC 40 loses 2.25% to 5,893.21 points, while the British FTSE 100 plunges 2.35% at 7,101.31 points. In the periphery, the Italian FTSE MIB falls 3%, while the Spanish IBEX 35 falls by 1.5%.

The Wall Street index also recorded “heavy” losses, as the US Federal Reserve (Fed) made the largest rate hike since 1994. In particular, the Dow Jones index lost 2.28% to 29,969 points, the S&P 500 lost 2.72% at 3,687 points, while the technology Nasdaq is down 3.03% at 10,762 points.

Memories 2013 – 2014

The markets are clearly reminiscent of the great turmoil of 2013-2014 when the Federal Reserve began the big tapering after the historic decisions of the 2007-2008 crisis. And then we had the big shifts of capital to safer investment shelters, with the big “victim” being the emerging markets (then Greece was experiencing its own crisis and the influences were minimal since the ATHEX was already under great pressure).

So today the leverage has begun and will surely significantly clear the landscape after a long period of cheap money. And as Allianz’s investment advisor Mohamed El-Erian puts it, it’s time to get out of the artificial world of huge liquidity at zero interest rates, which has led to investments that make no sense or involve risk.

So what we are seeing is a big turnaround of big money into traditional safe havens, until the prospects and intentions are clear. And the ATHEX can not but be in the crosshairs of divestments in high risk markets, even if the presence of foreigners is relatively low in Athens.

Having recovered this memory, the markets are looking for either liquidity or safe investment shelters, until it can clarify the impact that the decisions that are now being made will have on the economy as a whole. And it’s a given that it takes a long time as a very difficult equation has to be solved after so many years.

The case of Greece

In the case of Greece, according to Ilias Zacharakis of Fast Finance, we have completely different macros since we come from a long recession with loans falling to very low levels. Government debt is largely in the formal European sector, while the country has managed to borrow at low interest rates in recent years with a good liquidity cushion.

On the other hand, it is a given with so much turmoil abroad to be affected having in front of it two very important issues. One is the possible elections with the funds wanting to see first if we have a stable government and the second is the geopolitical issues with Turkey. This whole environment, for better or worse, affects the market in the short term, having this picture at this stage.

In addition, the market was waiting for the country to enter the investment stage in the new year, a fact that will completely change the image on the stock market and bonds. This was the bet of the last period with the developments to overtake us and the market to wait for it after clearing the landscape. The sharp fluctuations of the market will continue depending on the events that we will face, while the GDP this year will certainly be affected due to the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, after many years, the tools that the economy has are many, a fact that has not negated the positive scenario, concludes Mr. Zacharakis.

On the board

On the board now, Piraeus, Alpha Bank and Ethniki recorded losses that exceeded 5%, while over 4% was the fall in Eurobank, Jumbo and ELHA. The fall in Hellenic Petroleum, PPC, Saranti, Mytilineo, OTE, IPTO and PPA exceeded 3%, while that of Viohalko, Lambda, Aegean, Titan and OPAP by 2%.

Terna Energeiaki, Quest and GEK Terna closed above -1%, with EYDAP controlling its fall to -0.13%. On the other hand, Motor Oil and Ellactor managed to close in positive territory, with Coca Cola finishing at + 1.42% offering significant support.