Greek Bonds and Stock Market Drop After Snap Election Announcement

Greece’s stock market plunged 11 percent on Tuesday and bond yields spiked after the country’s government surprised investors by announcing a snap presidential vote.

The election was originally scheduled for the new year, but will now take place next week. The news, announced late Monday, caused the Athens Stock Exchange to fall 11 percent by midday on Tuesday, and the yield on Greek 10-year government debt to rise 29 basis points to 7.63 percent.

Greece’s banks were among the worst hit, with the National Bank of Greece trading down around 15 percent, Piraeus bank down 17 percent and Attica bank down 26 percent.

On Monday, euro zone finance ministers signaled that they were in favor of granting Greece a two-month extension to its bailout program, which Athens will ask for on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras brought forward the election to select a new president after failing to win backing from Brussels over his 2015 budget. The first of three rounds of voting will be held on December 17.

A failure by Samaras to get his candidate elected for president – who has yet to be announced – could trigger early elections, Reuters reported Tuesday.

via CNBC

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.