London open: Greek chaos sparks market sell-off; airline stocks drop

The UK stock market and indices across Europe suffered a steep sell-off on Monday morning after Greece imposed capital controls and called for a referendum on bailout terms, pushing the country nearer to an exit from the Eurozone.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced on Saturday that the government would be putting creditors’ “unbearable” proposals to the public vote on 5 July. Greece’s parliament has backed the plan for a referendum.

The FTSE 100 was down 1.85% at 6,628.67 after the first hour of trade, having touched a low of 6,598.64 early on. The index has not dipped below the 6,600 mark since mid-January.

After talks with lenders failed at the weekend, Greece has now effectively run out of time to secure funding to help pay its €1.6bn debt repayment to the IMF on Tuesday, the same day that its current bailout agreement expires.

Athens has confirmed that Greek banks will be closed all week due to an “extremely urgent” need to protect the financial system after the ECB decided to freeze emergency funding. Cash withdrawals from ATMs will be limited to just €60 a day.

The stock market in Athens is also expected to remain closed on Monday.

Mohamed El-Erian, well-known economist and chief economic adviser at Allianz, said he now sees “an 85% probability that Greece will be forced to leave the Eurozone”.

“What we are seeing here is what economists call the sudden stop, when the payment system stops. The logic of a sudden stop is a massive economic contraction, social unrest and it’s going to make continued membership of the Eurozone very difficult for Greece,” he said.

Airline stocks slide

Travel tour operators TUI and Thomas Cook dropped sharply in early trading as investors expressed concerns about Greece and the impact of potential social unrest on the travel market. Wider concerns about the disruption on tourism from recent terrorists attacks in Paris and Tunisia were also likely dampening sentiment.

Similarly, airline peers IAG and Easyjet were also trading in the red. IAG in particular was registering heavy losses after the company offered concessions in its bid to merge with Aer Lingus after regulators raised competition concerns.

Stocks in the financial sectors such as Hargreaves Lansdown, Aberdeen Asset Management and Henderson Group were falling as market volatility increased across Europe.

FTSE 100-listed drinks bottler Coca-Cola HBC, which has a secondary listing in Athens, was also suffering heavy losses.

Just two stocks on the blue-chip index, precious metal miners Randgold and Fresnillo, were making gains as investors sought out safe-haven investments such as gold.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,118.38 -1.61%
FTSE 100 6,628.67 -1.85%
FTSE 250 17,522.01 -1.69%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,411.00p +0.85%
Fresnillo (FRES) 700.00p +0.29%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,029.00p -7.55%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 496.00p -3.60%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,153.00p -3.51%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 451.90p -2.96%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,387.00p -2.94%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,531.00p -2.92%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,024.50p -2.89%
Old Mutual (OML) 203.60p -2.77%
CRH (CRH) 1,808.00p -2.74%
Barclays (BARC) 265.10p -2.66%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 63.15p +0.96%
Grainger (GRI) 225.00p +0.67%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 317.20p +0.60%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 428.20p +0.59%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,452.00p +0.21%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 307.70p +0.13%
NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd GBP (NBLS) 97.75p +0.10%
John Laing Infrastructure Fund Ltd (JLIF) 122.00p +0.08%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 134.60p -6.66%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,140.00p -5.55%
Henderson Group (HGG) 263.00p -4.50%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 543.00p -4.06%
esure Group (ESUR) 247.00p -4.04%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 146.50p -3.93%
Evraz (EVR) 123.00p -3.68%
Man Group (EMG) 158.90p -3.64%
Bodycote (BOY) 691.00p -3.63%
Fidelity European Values (FEV) 173.50p -3.61%