A nationally televised address by the Greek prime minister on Tuesday morning, from the iconic Ionian isle of Ithaca, to commemorate the end of the third (and last) memorandum bailout apparently had little positive effect on the Athens Stock Exchange’s general index.
The ASE’s general index opened the session on a positive note, taking in marginal profits, only to slide downwards in subsequent hours. At the same time, the yield for the 10-year Greek bond fell below 4.3 percent.
At 13.25 (11.25 GMT) the general index was posting a decline of 0.7 percent, remaining at 707.6 points, with turnover a paltry 11.5 million euros.
The first reaction on the part of investors was neutral to the much-anticipated – especially by the poll-trailing Tsipras coalition government – end of the bailouts.
In a related development, Bloomberg on Tuesday referred to a “Herculean Task”, reminding that the ASE general index is today some 60 percent lower than it was in May 2010, when the first bailout was signed.
