Financial markets

Foreign funds may have recently appeared more favorable toward Greek bonds and the possibility of a new issue by the Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA), but the Greek government's plans for tapping the capital markets in the near future seem to be have been put on hold.

Turkey's capital markets regulator has partially suspended a directive related to insider share trading, it said in its weekly bulletin released on July 13, without giving a reason for the move.

Maintaining the eligibility of Greek bonds as collateral for European Central Bank liquidity and their inclusion in the ECB's bond-buying program (QE) would be an important catalyst for the improvement of the Greek bond market and investors' attitude toward Greece, market insiders stress.

The game is not over yet for Greece, only the first half, according to economists who shared their conclusions about last week's Eurogroup decisions with Kathimerini.

The Eurogroup agreement met with a warm reception from bond markets and analysts, triggering a rally in Greek bond prices. This has brought back the prospect of a Greek return to the markets this summer if international conditions allow it.

The Turkish economy's total financial assets were 11.29 trillion Turkish Liras ($2.97 trillion) as of the fourth quarter of 2017, its central bank announced on June 14.

The mandatory pension funds - Pillar II - at 31 March were worth rd 42.53 billion lei (rd 9.14 bln euros), up by 25.22pct against the level at 31 March 2017, according to data released by the Financial Surveillance Authority (ASF).

The deterioration of Greece's country risk, recently reflected in the increase in sovereign bond yields after the issue of the seven-year bond on February 9, has also had a negative impact on Greek corporate bonds on the platform of the Athens Exchange.

The Athens bourse looks set to see a revival of trading in corporate bonds for the next couple of months at least. Kathimerini understands that four new bulletins were submitted to the Capital Markets Commission last week, with the aim of raising a minimum of 100 million euros in total.

National Bank of Greece has brought its dependence on the central bank's emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) mechanism down to zero.

This satisfies the pledge NBG's management had made for disengagement from the expensive system of cash supply by the end of 2017.