Financial markets

He surely has made a lot of money, but investment guru Mark Mobius has now made history. Speaking to state-run press agency Anadolu Agency, he said that Turkey?s economy was not fragile.

World-renowned climbing walls manufacturer Walltopia has announced that two equity funds, one from China and one from Bulgaria, have acquired a minority stake in the company.

These are BlackPeak Capital, a Bulgaria-based private equity fund, and the China-CEE Fund.

BlackPeak capital was set up under the EU's Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises (JEREMIE).

The Athens Stock Exchange is due to open next week, said Capital Market Commission president Konstantinos Botopoulos in a television interview with the national broadcaster, ERT.

A bank “holiday” — closed doors — has been extended until Wednesday in crisis-battered and liquidity-starved Greece. Moreover, a cash withdrawal limit remains at 60 euros per day per account, according to the government.

The number of Chinese-listed companies seeking to halt trading in their shares has surged since the country's bourses began a precipitous plunge in the middle of last month, prompting concern some firms are trying to escape the turbulent markets.

The four largest Greek banks have failed and would also have defaulted had capital controls not been imposed at the outset of the week, due to deposit withdrawals and the ECB’s decision not to raise the Bank of Greece’s (BG) Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) ceiling, says Fitch Ratings.

The BBC has reported that the European Central Bank’s governing council, which is convening on Sunday, is expected shut down the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) mechanism for cash-strapped Greek banks.
The media outlet quotes “well-placed sources”.

 Moody?s, JP Morgan say such restrictions are drawing closer

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

The Central Bank warned in its annual report issued on Monday that high interest rates are causing a decrease in liquidity which could lead to insolvency, while also contributing to last year's decline in investment activity.

"In the long run, that leads to stagnation and a recession in economic activity," the report said.

The head of Germany's Bundesbank criticised the weekly top-ups of emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to Greek banks, saying in a German newspaper interview that this broke the taboo of financing governments.