from capital.gr
Athens Stock Exchange seems to ignore Moody’s downgrade of Greece’s credit rating to Junk status. Greek Stock Market opened low this morning – even losing 2% at some point – but quickly managed to recover.
Currently (14:00 local time) the General Index advances 0.57% at 1,549,3 on a total turnover of EUR 58,51 mil.
UPDATE: ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE CLOSED AT 1,530,04 , losing 0,69 % trading EUR 111,15 Million
Yesterday Moody’s Investors Service cut Greek government debt by four notches from A3 to Ba1. Controversially enough and ignoring Greece’s support by EU/IMF/ECB Mood’ys gives Greece a ‘stable outlook’ for the next 12 – 18 months
Greece reacts
Moody’s moody move caught many by surprise in Greece.
The Finance Ministry in a statement stated that the downgrade does not reflect the true progress.
Uni sono in the news politicians, journalists, experts and non-experts speak of Moody’s “unjustifiable and unfortunate” move.
Investors speaking to economy website www.capital.gr said that “ Th e four notch credit rating downgrade of Greece by Moody’s yesterday afternoon under normal circumstances could have had a highly negative effect in Athex course. However, given the support offered to Greece from IMF/ECB/EU and the diminished credibility of credit rating agencies lately the result may not be negative,” so ATE Securities.
“Moody΄s unexpected, in terms of aggressiveness, downgrade of Greece by four notches is expected to assert significant pressures on the Athenian bourse, with the banking sector being on the spotlight. Portfolio managers are expected to reduce their positioning on both Greek Government Bonds (GGBs) and equities, possibly creating opportunities for buyers that missed out the chance of increasing their position in the Greek market at the 1,380 – 1,420 units levels,” Pegasus Securities said.
Olli Rehn Attacks Moody’s
Meanwhile, Olli Rehn, European Economic & Monetary Affairs Commissioner attacked Moody’s. The timing of Moody’s decision to downgrade Greek sovereign debt was “astonishing and unfortunate”, said Rehn and added that Moody’s downgrade had not taken into account latest developments in the country and once again raised questions about the ratings agencies.
“I have discussed with Michelle Barnier [Commissioner internal market] and President Barroso … the timing of the decline is surprising and unfortunate, as it comes shortly after the agreement [between Greece and the Troika] for macroeconomic consolidation,” said Olli Rehn Speaking in Eurpean Parliament in Strasbourg.
He said the measures taken by the Greek government show its commitment towards fiscal consolidation and marked Moody’s move «inconsistent” with the return of Greek bonds and the prices of CDS in the country .
“This raises questions about the role of rating agencies in the financial system” Olli Rehn said, and pledged that the European Commission in the near future will address these issues.
