Hedge funds increased their bets against Greece’s government debt last week ahead of the country’s national elections, on the back of concerns over the possibility of post-election political paralysis, according to a report by The Financial Times.
The repot cites data from S&P Global Market Intelligence as revealing that last week, the total value of Greece’s bonds borrowed by investors to wager on a fall in prices, hit its highest level since 2014 at over $500 million – up from around $65 million at the start of the year.
Greek debt has outperformed other European countries so far this year, with S&P recently changing its outlook for the country from stable to positive.
Early election results suggest that conservative prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his centre-right New Democracy party have secured almost 41% of the votes, but have fallen five seats short of a majority.
In a victory speech, he said: “The people wanted the choice of a Greece run by a majority government and by New Democracy without the help of others,” indicating that he will shun a power-sharing deal in favour of a second election in late June, when the wining party would pick up additional bonus seats which could give New Democracy a majority.
