For a second day in a row, Greek stocks and state bonds remain under heavy pressure. Starting yesterday and hit by a wave of selling foreign investors, the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) index fell more than 7%, significantly below the 900-point level, while turnover was heavy at more than 130 million euros. Closing 1.3% lower than yesterday, this was ASE’s worst trading day since June 2013. In addition, bond prices came under heavy pressure in the domestic electronic secondary bond market, with the yield spread between the 10-year Greek and German benchmark bonds widening to 6.75%, while during midday trading, the Greek bond yielded more than 7.6%. Foreign investors are now facing the fear of political uncertainty in Greece. Fueled by the ongoing speculation over early general elections following the presidential one in March and the latest polls showing leftist main opposition party SYRIZA with a significant 6.5% lead over ruling New Democracy, they are steadily withdrawing from the Greek market. The negative climate was not reversed even after a Goldman Sachs report revealed that Greek banks will only need one billion euros for their capital needs, while at the same time, the drop of ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany has caused concerns for the development course of Eurozone’s strongest economy.
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