Greece’s main stock exchange in Athens will reopen on Monday after being closed for five weeks by the Greek debt crisis after the government imposed capital controls, a finance ministry source told AFP.
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“We’re working on the basis of Monday but we’re waiting for the minister’s decision, which is the legal prerequisite for the reopening”, said Konstantinos Botopoulos, chairman of the Hellenic Capital Market Commission. According to financial media, the resumption of trading on the exchange, shut down on June 26, will be accompanied by restrictions for investors based in Greece.
This was the result of the failure of Greece and its European Union and global Monetary Fund creditors to agree a new cash-for-reforms deal.
The third bailout will include a new punishing round of austerity measures heaped on a country reeling from a six-year recession and more than 25 percent unemployment. The Athex Composite was halted for trade in late June after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a referendum on the country’s bailout terms.
Traders said on Friday, however, they were optimistic the stock exchange would reopen sometime next week. A report in Sunday’s Avgi newspaper, which is close to Tsipras’ government, suggested Athens is seeking around 10 billion euros ($11 billion) this month for bank recapitalisation.
Technical glitches at local banks, which will be required to enforce the trading restrictions, had further complicated the exchange’s reopening and many securities traders took an early summer holiday during the closure.
Greek investors will not be able to finance the purchase of securities by taking money from their bank accounts in Greece.
As you can understand, there was convergence on some points, and less convergence on others, he said.
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Mr Varoufakis may have made mistakes, he said.
