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Tuesday, 26 November 2024
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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-12-09Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] Tsipras: SYRIZA is ready to govern the countryANA-MPA -- Main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday stressed that his party was ready and ripe to take over the governance of the country and that the new year will be "a time of change and hope for Greece and Europe"."SYRIZA will provide solutions for the benefit of the people and the country," he said, while referring to the recent developments at a SYRIZA event on tourism. The country was heading toward a confrontation where the dilemmas would be whether austerity must continue or not, whether VAT on medicine should be raised, whether lay-offs should be liberalised and the EKAS benefit for poor pensioners should be abolished. He urged Greek men and women to display "democratic vigilance" and to convert their reaction into a force for change. "It is not the markets that determine the right of people to dignity," he said, adding that voters were being "terrorised" by the spectre that the "torture of new measures" might continue. Tsipras said that the decision to push up the presidential election was a "desperate move" by a government faced by a "political stalemate": "The speeding up of the procedures for the presidential election by a parliament that is politically delegitimized and unable to give the broad consensus that the legislation requires for the election of the Greek President is effectively equal to the speeding up of the processes that will lead to the popular verdict." Tsipras said that "on December 29 the catastrophic actions of the bipartisan government of the memoranda will be terminated" and that the new year will usher in "a strong mandate for a government of social salvation led by SYRIZA." "The speeding up of the processes – which in effect the main opposition has been asking for sometime now and which the government rejected as a so-called proposal of destabilisation and uncertainty – yesterday became the initiative of the government out of necessity and not by choice. Because, its policy has now reached destructive stalemates; because the society's reaction to this policy has now become universal…In this respect, the speeding up of developments is an important popular and democratic victory," Tsipras said. He also estimated that "in the upcoming elections, there will be a confrontation of two distinctive alternative political plans for our country: on one hand, (Prime Minister Antonis) Samaras' plan that wants to turn the Memorandum into a regime. This is also described in the e-mails to the troika and the revelations on the social security system, the cuts, the new taxes. On the other hand, there is SYRIZA's political plan, with specific and firm steps, with confidence and security, from the first day of the new governance, just as we described at the Thessaloniki International Fair." [02] Greek stocks nosedive, plunging Athens bourse 12.78 pct lowerANA-MPA -- Greek stocks were in free fall in the Athens Stock Exchange on Tuesday, recording the largest slide seen on the Athens bourse since 1987. The plunge, accompanied by a deteriorating climate in the bond market, came in the wake of announcements that the presidential election was being pushed up to December, and the looming spectre of early general elections. The risk that Greece will be plunged into political uncertainty increases the country risk and led foreign investors to wholesale selling of Greek stocks, with bank shares particulary hard hit.The composite index of the market nosedived to stop just shy of the 900-point level, shedding a record 132.24 points - or 12.78 pct - to end at 902.84 points, up from a low of 898.93 points mid-session when it was losing 13.15 pct. The index has posted accumulated losses of 22.34 pct since the start of 2014 and has lost 34.08 pct since the highest point of the year in March, when the bourse stood at 1,369.56 points. Turnover rose sharply to 212.73 million euros. The Large Cap index posted epic losses of 12.93 pct and the Mid Cap index ended even lower, falling by 13.12 pct. All stocks lost ground, with the heaviest percentage losses suffered by MIG (-23.69 pct), PPC (-23.08 pct), NBG(-20.49 pct), Terna Energiaki (-17.88 pct), Piraeus Bank (-16.42 pct), Viohalco (-16.25 pct), Hellenic Petroleum (-15.98 pct) and Ellaktor (-15.77 pct). All sectors lost ground, with the heaviest losses in Utilities (-20.63 pct), Banks (16.62 pct), Financial Services (-15.86 pct) and Health (-15.84 pct). Decliners far outpaced advancers by 121 to 10, with another 9 issues unchanged. AXON Holdings (20 pct), Perseus (16.86 pct) and Yalco (10.06 pct) were top gainers, while G.E. Demetriou (-30.00 pct), Attica Bank (-27.47 pct) and MIG (23.69 pct) were top losers. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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