logo
Greece remains on FTSE Russell watch list for market status change

Greece remains on FTSE Russell watch list for market status change

Reuters08-04-2025

April 8 (Reuters) - FTSE Russell on Tuesday said Greece will remain on the equity watch list for possible reclassification from "advanced emerging" to "developed market", and will be evaluated against certain requirements based on data as of month-end June.
In October, the index provider had put Greek stocks on a watch list for the potential promotion, saying that an "investment grade" rating of its debt was a key requirement, which the country accomplished in March with a Moody's upgrade.
Major index providers, including Russell and MSCI, had first demoted Greek stocks to "emerging" in 2013, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
However, a steady economic improvement since the COVID-19 pandemic and a healthier financials sector (.FTATFS), opens new tab have helped the Athens stock index (.ATG), opens new tab outperform the broader pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX), opens new tab and the MSCI emerging stocks index (.MSCIEF), opens new tab.
FTSE Russell's next update on the watch list status of Greece will be provided as part of the FTSE Equity Country Classification September 2025 annual review of equity markets.
Market reviews from other index providers, including S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI, are due later in the year.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Confidence in UK economy falls from 45% in 2015 to 28% a decade later
Confidence in UK economy falls from 45% in 2015 to 28% a decade later

ITV News

timean hour ago

  • ITV News

Confidence in UK economy falls from 45% in 2015 to 28% a decade later

Confidence in the strength of the UK economy has fallen from 45% in May 2015 to 28% a decade later following a cost-of-living crisis, Brexit, Covid and geopolitical upheaval, according to a long-running survey. But confidence in non-essential spending has held strong, at an average of 53% from 2015 to now, the Barclays 10 Years Of Spend report found. Despite financial pressure, households' discretionary spending has grown by 9.2% annually on average between 2021 and 2024, outpacing essential spending's 5% growth. The study, based on billions of transactions and more than 200,000 consumer confidence surveys since 2015, found that 66% of consumers pay more attention to their budget than they did a decade ago. Just under half (45%) of UK adults say they do not feel better off than they did 10 years ago. Consumer confidence in the strength of the UK economy reached its highest point in September 2016 – at 48% – after the Brexit referendum, and fell to its lowest in October 2022 – at 15% – following the September 'mini-budget'. Barclays has monitored consumers' efforts to find value in their weekly supermarket shop since 2023, finding that the percentage of shoppers who say they are trying to reduce their grocery spending has averaged 65%, peaking at 73% in April last year. Karen Johnson, head of retail at Barclays, said: 'The last decade has brought unprecedented levels of disruption. Amid all the highs and lows, consumers have continued to rebalance their budgets and find savvy ways to manage their money. 'This conscious consumerism will continue to shape spending in the years ahead.' British Retail Consortium chief executive Helen Dickinson said: 'Since the cost-of-living crisis began, many consumers have adjusted their spending habits to save money. 'More consumers are shopping around, holding off on big-ticket purchases, and are switching to own-brand ranges or cheaper brands. For food specifically, many customers are swapping out fresh products for frozen and buying cheaper cuts of meat. 'Nonetheless, retailers remain committed to supporting their consumers by keeping the price of essentials as low as possible.'

Why corporate wokery refuses to die
Why corporate wokery refuses to die

Spectator

timean hour ago

  • Spectator

Why corporate wokery refuses to die

Everyone thinks they know what the Blob is. A great wobbly blancmange of Sir Humphreys and (these days) Lady Tamaras: a public sector elite, slow to action but quick to push its ideological agenda in all manner of insidious ways. Wrong. Or rather, this is only the half of it. Whatever the gargantuan size of the state compared with pre-pandemic, what few people realise is the extent to which the private sector has been incubating its own Blob for years. To illustrate how Blob PLC can achieve its ends and – crucially – why people have gone along with it, we must follow its successful campaign to make British business bow to the diversity gods, and how it started at the very top – with the boards. The trouble began with Lord Davies, affectionately known in his banking career as 'Merv the Swerve' after the Welsh rugby no. 8 of the same name, ennobled by Gordon Brown and made a minister for business. In 2011, Vince Cable, business secretary in the coalition, published a report from Lord Davies called Women on Boards. It asserted: 'Research has shown that strong stock market growth among European companies is most likely to occur where there is a higher proportion of women in senior management teams.' The basis of this claim was a 2007 report by an American organisation called Catalyst, set up to 'expand opportunities for women and business'. Not an entirely disinterested party, then. These reports, amplified later by two McKinsey studies, became the go-to texts which formed the foundation myth of Blob PLC's diversity dogmatism. As Alex Edmans and Ross Clark have written in this magazine, drawing on research by John Hand and Jeremiah Green in the US S&P 500 index, there is actually no evidence of a link between more diversity in a company and better stock performance.

Apple loses bid to pause app store reform order in Epic Games case
Apple loses bid to pause app store reform order in Epic Games case

Reuters

time3 hours ago

  • Reuters

Apple loses bid to pause app store reform order in Epic Games case

June 4 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab has failed to persuade a U.S. appeals court to pause key parts of a federal judge's order requiring the iPhone maker to immediately open its lucrative App Store to more competition. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected Apple's request to put the provisions on hold as the tech giant appeals the judge's order, which came in a long-running antitrust lawsuit brought by 'Fortnite' maker Epic Games. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in April found Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab in contempt of an earlier injunction order she issued in the Epic Games case. The judge on April 30 ordered Apple to end several practices that she said were designed to circumvent the injunction, including a new 27% fee Apple imposed on app developers when its customers complete an app purchase outside the App Store. The court also prohibited Apple from restricting where developers place links to make purchases outside of an app. In its emergency appeal, Apple said the ruling blocked the company from "exercising control over core aspects of its business operations" and forced it to give away free access to its services. Epic Games countered that Apple was trying to continue evading competition and collecting fees that the judge had barred. Apple has faced a "surge of genuine competition" since Gonzalez Rogers issued her April injunction, as developers updated apps with "better payment methods, better deals, and better consumer choice," Epic said. Epic Games sued Apple in 2020 to loosen its control over transactions in applications that use its iOS operating system and how apps are distributed to consumers. Apple mostly won the case, but Gonzalez Rogers in 2021 said Apple must allow developers to more easily steer consumers to potentially cheaper non-Apple payment options. Apple defied that court order to maintain a revenue stream worth billions of dollars, Gonzalez Rogers wrote in April. She also said Apple had misled the court about its efforts to comply with her injunction and referred the company and one of its executives to federal prosecutors for a possible criminal contempt investigation.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store