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The Athens Stock Exchange marked nine consecutive downward sessions with a total loss of about 10%, although the Greek economy rating was upgraded by Moody's in the meantime and despite yesterday's weak response of some shares that are important to the index.

The sales involve mainly shares of the four largest banks in the country and their aggressiveness and the volume of transactions make it clear that the sellers are all foreigners who participated in the increase of the banks’ share capital in April and May.

I.e. all those who did not hesitate to invest 8.3 billion euro in the bank capital increase, contributing towards the myth of the success of the Greek economy. Moreover, they easily covered the large corporate bond issues of companies listed on the stock exchange, the amount of which reached 6 billion euro.

In addition to Eurobank, in the case of which foreign investors have "even taken the keys" of the bank, the current prices of the other three banks are below the prices at which the capital increases were completed.

The striving to increase liquidity is partly due to the geopolitical concerns in Ukraine, Libya and Gaza as well as to the selective default of Argentina. Therefore, during this period, foreign stock exchanges reported tangible losses as well. On the domestic front, in turn, the tax shock due to the single tax on real estate and the risk of tax arrears going considerably up as well as the recent difficulties in the management of bad corporate loans are the factors that have reasonably made investors nervous.

In the case of the Athens Stock Exchange, however, we are facing a real suspension of investments although there were even calls for collateral securities on the part of investors and despite the fact that transactions with Greek CDS were recorded last week after a two-year interruption.

Market sources attribute this "self-exclusion" to the following two factors:

The first is the possible political developments, which is contradicted by the government, but, as noted by the same sources, we should not ignore the fact that managers of the funds that invested money in Greek assets have privileged information.

The second is the upcoming results of the stress tests of the system banks carried out by the European Central Bank. Since their regulations are strict and include regulated loans, the amount of capital that the Greek banks would require might be an unpleasant surprise.

Thus, those investors who wanted to bet on quick profits in Greece now consider and prefer increasing their available funds which is the reason for the increased sales of shares.

Of course, this withdrawal of funds has another explanation, "Foreign investors have received assurances that the new capital increases of the banks will be completed at even lower prices and they now prefer to secure cash to once again sweep the cards of the banks."