Greek stock market opens down 23% after five week closure

Greece’s top four banks particularly hard hit

The Athens Stock Exchange slid by 22.8 per cent on opening Monday

Investors are braced to buy stocks in Greece as the Athens Stock Exchange reopens this morning following a five-week shutdown.

The Athens Stock Exchange slid by 22.8 per cent on opening Monday with Greece’s top four banks particularly hard hit. Piraeus Bank, National Bank, Alpha Bank and Eurobank were all down 30 per cent, according to the BBC.

Exchange-traded funds, which track the index, had predicted a drop of around 20 per cent.

Some volatility controls are in place to stop a more aggressive drop at this time. Greeks are banned from transferring money from local bank accounts to buy shares, but local investors can reportedly take money from safe deposit boxes or stashed at home to invest, according to rules put in place by the finance ministry.

The Greek stock market closed at the height of the debt crisis on June 26 at 797.52 points and opened today at 615.16.

Meanwhile the Greek Purchasing Managers Index, which gives a single figure measure of business conditions in the country, plunged to 30.2 in July, its lowest point ever according to Markit, down from 46.9 in June.