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Roundup: Greece's banking stocks plunge for second day as bailout terms talks continue

Xinhua, August 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Following the worst day in Greece's stock market history in 28 years with a drop of 16.23 percent on Monday, the Athens Stock Exchange closed down 1.22 percent on Tuesday with banking index down around 30 percent.

The general price index at ASE closed at 659.94 points, with transactions valued at 64 million euros.

"Two days after the reopening of the stock exchange, there are signs of stability," President of the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) Konstantinos Botopoulos highlighted during a press conference on Tuesday.

The prohibition on short selling will continue until the end of August and will be lifted when the financial circumstances normalize, he added.

According to Botopoulos, the normalization of the stock market and the agreement with the creditors are the basic prerequisites for the lift of the restrictions to Greek investors.

At the same time, Greece's government continued talks on the terms of the third Greek bailout with creditors' envoys in Athens under positive climate.

Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and Economy Minister Yorgos Stathakis met with representatives of the four institutions, namely European Commission, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Stability Mechanism, to discuss the timeline of the bank recapitalization, the non-performing loans and the new privatization fund that will manage public assets.

After the completion of the first part of the negotiations, Tsakalotos said that an agreement could be achieved by Aug. 20, while he highlighted that they have not discussed the possibility of a "bridge loan".

Meanwhile, government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili said that if the terms of the European Union summit were met, a deal by the 18th of this month was possible.

"The first phase of negotiations ends today and the second phase starts, which really contains the details of drafting the deal," she told Greek SKAI TV station.

Athens needs to finalize the third bailout by Aug. 20, when the country needs to repay a loan installment to the European Central Bank. Endit