This trading week felt like a dramatic Greek tragedy which actually started in the country from where it first originated: Greece. The Greek stock exchange, the protagonist, fell an impressive 12.8% on Monday, its biggest single-session fall since 1987, while announcing it would bring forward elections, with speculation that  the radical left-wing party may come to power which in turn could raise the likelihood of a sovereign default. By the end of the week the Athens Stock Exchange had lost 20.18% bringing the loss since the start of the year to almost 30% while the 10 year Greek bond yield soared almost  2% over the week to 9.15%, to once more reach almost double digit numbers,  which hasn’t been seen for a while.

The Greek tragedy combined with a sliding oil price (which almost halved in less than six months!) & continued uncertainty about future ECB actions led to a dramatic catharsis leading the Euro Stoxx 50 6.41% lower this week. The insurance sector proved to be somewhat of a safe haven as the STOXX Insurance Index lost 4.51%. It wasn’t what one could call a happy end but Ageas’s shares did a little bit better than the STOXX Insurance Index  ending the trading week 3.84% lower, outperforming the Euro Stoxx 50 by 2.57%.