Greek Market Retreats
Athens stocks are sharply lower on Thursday as investors show limited appetite for risk.
“The market is very concerned that this year’s deficit target may not being met and if the 2009 deficit revision is high more draconian measures may be necessary to achieve goals promised to the IMF-EU lenders," a senior local analyst told Dow Jones Newswires.
"Added to this local macro risk is the drastic shrinkage of risk appetite for Euro-periphery assets given the problems in Ireland."
“The trend of the Athens market altered significantly towards the conclusion of the trading session as uncertainty over Ireland΄s fiscal condition prevailed on investors΄ sentiment, with margin trading also weighing heavily on the Index΄s course (positions opened during the sessions of Friday and Monday that turned unsuccessful). With the absence of domestic newswire failing to provide a firm reasoning as to yesterday΄s drop, we continue to be cautious, anticipating that the GI will most likely open on lower grounds, possibly towards the 1,500 - 1,490 units, which consist a region that has provided the market with ascending reactions on a number of cases. Should sellers, however, become more aggressive, the market could retreat further, gradually aiming for the 1,485 - 1,475 units, which consist today΄s 2nd support and the Index΄s previous bottom(November the 5th) levels respectively. Concluding, we note that today΄s pivot point stands at 1,520 units, meaning that should the GI approach the 1,485 levels early during the session, we would consider increasing our position on specific equities,” Pegasus says in its morning report.
“The upcoming Eurostat’s announcement on FY09 budget deficit and the speculation on the extra measures that this could bring about, should the rumours be confirmed, thus settling around 15-15.5% seem to be troubling the investment community for the moment. The market will most probably accumulate at current price levels with the risk lying to the downside,” Marfin Analysis notes.
Across the board, the General Index drops 1.69% at 1,484.86 on a total turnover of 53.04 mil. euro.
(Capital.gr)
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L'andamento alla Borsa di Atene.