Todays’ Black Wednesday follows a number of black days for the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX).
The collapse of bank stocks today has rocked the general index. The market is being battered relentlessly by the massive sell-offs, with no one quite sure of when it will hit bottom.
Today’s bank share sell-off followed yesterday’s drop, which brought the sectoral index to a 32-month low.
The General Index registered a 2.93 percent drop, to 661.19 points.
The Bank Index took an 11 percent plunge.
At 3pm today, Piraeus Bank shares lost 26 percent, Eurobank and Attica bank shares dropped by 15 percent. Alpha Bank shares fell by 3.77 percent, while National Bank of Greece shares fell by 6.33 percent.
Anxiety over the Italian “typhoon”, as well as domestic scenarios of a new bank recapitalisation, triggered the massive sell-off.
The ATHEX opened with a 1.5 percentage point drop, and by noontime losses had reached over 3.5 percent, with the general index falling under 600 points.
That was followed by a push and effort to restore a balance, and a few minutes later losses settled at under three percent.
At the same time, the FTSE 25 registered a 3.10 percentage point drop, falling to 1,740.30 points. The Bank Index fell by 14.83 percent, to 472.64 points.
The banking sector continues to be targeted by sellers, resulting in a double-digit drop, and with Piraeus Bank shares near limit down.
