Tuesday 13 September 2011

European stocks fall as Greek default concerns rise

Market concerns over Greece increased on Monday. Bloomberg reports:

Greece’s chance of default in the next five years has soared to 98 percent as Prime Minister George Papandreou fails to reassure international investors that his country can survive the euro-region crisis...

The ASE Index of Greek stocks fell 4.4 percent to 847.48, from 1,286 on July 22. Greece’s two-year note yields jumped more than 12 percentage points to a euro-era record 69.551 percent, after climbing 9.8 percentage points last week.

Greek stocks were not the only ones that fell sharply on Monday. The STOXX Europe 600 lost 2.5 percent to close at 218.93, extending its fall from its peak on 17 February to 24.8 percent. European stocks have now lost more than half of the gains made since the market bottomed in March 2009.

US stocks managed to rise however after a report came out that Italy was in talks with China about possible investments. The S&P 500 ended up 0.7 percent.

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