Galery

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The collapse of the Athens Stock Exchange continued for a second day. Today it closed with losses of 2.89 per cent and 450.83 basis points.

The Greek media indicate that the level of the index was so low on 16 October 1989. It has fallen by 28.6 per cent since the beginning of the year whereas the loss from the recent recapitalization of the Greek banks amount to 13.1 billion euro.

"Everyone is selling. Both foreign and Greek hedge funds," a stock expert told the online edition iefimerida.gr earlier today. Significantly, the stock index lost about 12 per cent of its value due to the uncertainty in Greece and the negative international stock market environment.

According to him, the events are dictated by the trend of 10-year Greek government bonds that have been rapidly going up since the beginning of the year. In late December, their yield was 8.186 per cent, reaching 10.745 per cent today. The 2.5 per cent increase is a direct result of the uncertainty surrounding the negotiations between the Greek government and creditors. By comparison, currently the yields of the equivalent German bonds is 0.2 per cent, of Portuguese 3.4 per cent, Italian 1.7 per cent, French 0.6 per cent and of the Irish 0 9 per cent.

The yields of 2-year Greek bonds also reported an increase (14.22 per cent) as well as of 3-year bonds (13.97 per cent).