ATHENS: Stocks came under pressure in Greece from the start of trade on Friday, as was the case elsewhere in Europe. However, the local bourse fared even worse than its continental counterparts, with the benchmark posting a big decline of more than 13 percent at the end of the session due to its being more reliant on credit sector stocks, which suffered the greatest impact from the market turbulence after the UK referendum result in favor of an EU exit.
The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 534.78 points, plunging 13.42 percent from Thursday’s 617.69 points – the second biggest daily decline ever for the local benchmark. On a weekly basis it shrank 8.83 percent. The large-cap FTSE 25 index contracted 15.85 percent on Friday to end at 1,443.74 points.
All four core banks opened at limit-down (minus 30 percent): Eurobank fell 30 percent, Alpha dropped 29.66, Piraeus lost 29.60 percent and National gave up 29.45 percent. A Black Friday indeed, as George Soros had predicted midweek, with 5.6 billion euros wiped off the bourse’s value. In total 11 stocks registered gains, 99 posted losses and 10 held their ground.
Turnover amounted to 161.6 million euros, up from Thursday’s 74.2 million. In Nicosia the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange declined 3.61 percent to close at 65.90 points.
