On Monday morning, Athens' stock exchange reopened after being shut down for five weeks. In an effort to keep the nation's financial system from crashing, Greek policy makers enacted capital controls which included the closure of share markets earlier this summer. However as predicted, Greece's market opening left investors with heavy losses.
Prices Tumble
The Athens Stock Exchange General Index was down 19.25 percent at 9:25 GMT, the time of this writing. Upon opening, the market lost almost 23 percent. While all of Greece's industries were hard hit, banking stocks took on the heaviest losses with the National Bank of Greece NBG and Alpha Bank both falling by around 30 percent.
Related Link: A Look Ahead: Consumer Discretionary And Greek ETFs To Watch This Week
Banks Hurting
Banks in Greece have been struggling as the nation's lawmakers work to secure new funding. After weeks of uncertainty, most are expecting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to request nearly €10 billion euros in the coming weeks in order to recapitalize the nation's floundering banks.
Trust Broken
While Greece has tentatively agreed to a bailout program with its EU creditors, many are worried that the months of negotiations preceding the deal have weakened trust between eurozone nations and set the stage for future budget battles.
Greece's money problems are far from over, and its eurozone creditors are still divided on how to help shore up the nation's financial system. Many worry that the desperately needed funding for banks will be hard for Tsipras to come by, thus leading to further uncertainty among investors.
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