Greece's Election Chaos Is Sending Markets Crashing Again

This has not been a good week for Greek stocks.

After Tuesday's absolute demolition, with the Athens Stock Exchange plunging 12.78% (worse than any day during the euro crisis), shares are tanking again.

The ASE is down 7.58% at 2.30 p.m. GMT, with Greece's banks once again leading the decline. National Bank of Greece is down by about 25% this week, with similar sell-offs for Piraeus Bank and Alpha Bank.

Here's what the Athens Stock Exchange looks like this week:

Investing.com, Business Insider

Thursday, it's off the back of a speech by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. He's promising debt restructuring if his coalition stays in power, and markets aren't liking it. He also used the G-word, "Grexit," which terrified markets so much during the euro crisis. Samaras says Syriza, the radical left-wing group that wants to tear up Greece's bailout arrangements, is threatening the country's eurozone membership.

If Samaras can't find the votes he needs from Greek legislators in presidential elections on Dec. 17, and again later in the month, there will be parliamentary elections, which Syriza is expected to win.

At least one party, the Democratic Left, is refusing to budget and support Samaras' efforts to install a president. According to MacroPolis, the Democratic Left's 10 legislators unanimously agreed not to vote with the government. The government has 155 of Greece's 300 parliamentarians, and it needs 180 to approve Stavros Dimas, the government's candidate.

Greece's government bond yields are reacting, too: Yields on the government's 10-year bonds are back above 9%, the highest in 2014 so far, barring a very brief spike in October. Bond yields are a common measurement of how risky it is to hold a government's debt. Admittedly, that's still pretty low by Greek standards:

Investing.com

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