Awaiting ECB’s take on bourse
Market regulators Bank of Greece and Capital Market Commission are waiting for feedback from the European Central Bank on a text sent on Thursday regarding the reopening of Athens Exchange.
The text describes the solutions proposed to overcome technical obstacles that will allow the Greek bourse to reopen with Greek investors being able to use their bank accounts to acquire shares.
Although it is unlikely that the ECB will give a response before Sunday, as soon as its opinion arrives in Athens the pertinent legislative act will be prepared and forwarded to Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos for signing. If this happens before Monday morning, the Athens stock market will be able to open its gates after 20 working days of closure.
A government official told reporters on Thursday that a decision on the “terms and the date of return to operations for the Greek markets” has been postponed until next week.
Stockbrokers have developed a series of arguments based on past facts and future scenarios that show that any capital outflows abroad from the local banking system would be negligible, while the collateral damage from an imbalanced opening of the market – with sellers having more rights than buyers – could prove to be greater and long-lasting.
All this was discussed during a two-hour meeting held on Thursday at the Bank of Greece, involving representatives of the central bank, the Capital Market Commission, the banks, the government, the stock market and the traders.
The key now lies in the hands of the ECB, as its attitude on the issue will be decisive. The Greek side has already expressed its satisfaction with the positive stance shown by the ECB after it agreed on Wednesday to extend the limit of the emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) for banks by 900 million euros. The Bank of Greece hopes that the ECB will continue to be positive toward Greece, provided of course that the government sticks to its commitments.
