Greek stocks fall sharply on banking sector meltdown

Athens (AFP) – Greek stocks tumbled on Monday to close nearly eight percent lower, with bank shares losing almost a quarter of their market value amid concerns over the future of government reforms.

The general index on the Athens stock exchange closed down 7.9 percent at 464.23 points — a 25-year-low — while banks suffered a 24.3-percent average drop.

Top companies such as the Public Power Corporation, the Piraeus Port Authority and prominent construction firms lost between four and and 12.5 percent.

Europe’s New Colonialism: ECB Rejects Greek Request To Reopen Stock Market

Tsipras went against 61% of the population and its no-vote referendum, and now Greece has been fully compromised and is in the beginning stages of German/Troika control. Greece is now effectively a vassal state.

 

It has been one month since Greek capital controls were imposed, and as we explained earlier, Greece is nowhere closer to having its deposit limits lifted. In fact, with several more months of capital controls at least, the Greek banks are likely to suffer ongoing balance sheet impairments which will ultimately result in depositor bail-ins, with Germany already pushing for haircuts on deposits over €100,000.

However, when it comes to banks there is at least still the illusion that Greece has some residual sovereignty. The reality is that it does not, as Greece is no longer an independent nation, and as of July 15, the Greek “In Dependence” day, every Greek decision needs to get pre-approval from both the ECB, Brussels and, naturally, Berlin.

The next few days will transform Greece and Europe

As it turns out, the Greek crisis ends not with a bang, but with a referendum.

It has been easy to ignore the doings in Greece for the past few years, with the perpetual series of summits in Brussels that never seem to resolve anything. But it’s time to pay attention. These next few days are shaping up to become a transformational moment in the 60-year project of building a unified Europe. We just don’t yet know what sort of transformation it will be.

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Whatever the exact phrasing of the question (and assuming the referendum goes forward as planned), it really boils down to this simple choice:

Greeks drain ATMs as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras calls referendum to decide country’s fate

Greece’s banks may need an injection of fresh emergency funds to operate on Monday as people rushed to pull out money after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a referendum that could decide his country’s fate in the euro.

Two senior Greek retail bank executives said as many as 500 of the country’s more than 7000 ATMs had run out of cash as of Saturday morning, and that some lenders may not be able to open on Monday unless there was an emergency liquidity injection from the Bank of Greece. An official with Greece’s Capital Markets Commission, the markets’ regulator, also warned that the Athens Stock Exchange may be unable to operate on Monday without a cash injection into the banking system. A Greek central bank spokesman said it was making efforts to supply money.