GREECE The ASE general ended the last pre-election trading session sharply higher on a 6.14% gain, with the banks stocks outperforming with an impressive 9.10% (Piraeus leading the way with +13.8%). Trading volume reached EUR256.3mn, standing significantly higher than the yearly average. The rally was supported by the widespread international euphoria following the announcement of the ECB QE program. Notable non-financial performers were Jumbo (+12.64%), Hell. Exchanges (+10.99%), Mytilineos (+9.46%). Politics // Syriza wins Greek elections, secures 149 seats (2 short of a majority) With 99.8% of the vote counted at the time of this writing, Syriza has fallen just 2 seats short of an absolute majority taking 36.3% of the popular vote compared with 27.8% for New Democracy. The gap between the two parties amounted to c8.5%, higher than most recent polls had been suggesting. The corresponding number of seats in Parliament amounts to 149 for Syriza and 76 for ND. Golden Dawn came third with 6.3% (17 seats) while the centre-left party “To Potami” was fourth (6.1%, 17 seats). The rest of the parties that make up the new Parliament are The Communist Party (5.5%, 15 seats), Independent Greeks (4.8%, 13 seats), and PASOK (4.7%, 13 seats). As per the Greek constitution, the President of the Republic will commission the leader of the 1st-placed party to form a coalition govt enjoying the Parliament’s confidence. According to press reports, Syriza is most likely to form a coalition with Independent Greeks with the leaders of the two parties scheduled to meet at 10:30 Athens time today. In this case, the govt would enjoy 162 seats and aggregate 41.1% of the electorate. Assuming Syriza and Independent Greeks wrap up the coalition talks, the new PM will be sworn in today. The swearing-in of the new cabinet will take place tomorrow evening or Wednesday morning. Politics // Multiple press reports foreign officials’ statements on Syriza victory As expected following the result announcement, there were a series of foreign official statements regarding the Syriza victory. In particular, Mr. Tsipras received congratulations from the US and France, while the UK indicated that the Syriza win “will increase economic uncertainty across Europe”. The EU parliament president also congratulated Mr. Tsipras while indicated that he’ll do whatever he can so that there’s a mutually beneficial agreement between involved parties. To this respect he’ll be visiting Athens this week right after the new cabinet is sworn in before he meets with Chancellor Merkel on Friday. In the meantime, there’s a press report that a German official (member of the CSU which is the Bavarian sister party of the CDU) stated that Germany may scrap debt assistance to Greece. Economy // Eurogroup meeting today; to discuss developments in Greece The Eurozone Finance Ministers will meet today for a scheduled Eurogroup meeting and developments in Greece have been moved higher up on the agenda following yesterday’s elections. According to a press report in euro2day.gr, Greece will be represented by former Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis who will attempt to finalize any pending technical issues. Banks // Restructuring of CHF loans Reportedly, Greek banks are proposing lower monthly installments for customers with exposure to CHF loans. This is a first step to counterbalance the impact from the recent CHF strengthening and avoid a new wave of non-performing loans. Banks are expecting any government debt relief initiatives before proceeding with proposing more radical restructuring of the specific loans such as redenomination into local currency. Alpha Bank – Eurobank // Sale of Cardlink SA Alpha Bank announced the sale of 100% of Cardlink SA to Quest Holdings Group for EUR 15mn. Alpha Bank and Eurobank owned 50% of the Cardlink each. The company operates in the area of network service provision of POS terminals for electronic transactions with payment cards. No significant impact, is expected, from this transaction given its small size.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 07:23:40 +0000
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