Greece is mentioned a lot in the news the last months due to the country’s economic crisis. Under these conditions some investors may be on the lookout for buying Greek stocks really cheap but not many Greek companies list ADRs in American stock exchanges. On the other hand a Greek default or/and an exit from the Eurozone would cause more turmoil to the finance world and stocks would most likely plummet even lower. For those risk-loving investors or traders the GREK exchange-traded fund (ETF) provides another option when it comes to trading the Greek stock market, as the ETF investment seeks results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the FTSE/Athex 20 Capped Index. The FTSE 20 includes some of the most popular Greek stocks, such as the National Bank of Greece, Coca-Cola Hellenic and Hellenic Telecom Organization.
The GREK ETF inception date was December 6, 2011. Let’s take a look at the GREK graph since its inception.
Now here is the actual FTSE 20 of the Greek stock market at the time of writing (August 2012).
Notice the support and resistance level at 12 for the ETF and the 230 mark at the FTSE graph. Unless that level is broken, I am not expecting a major reversal for the Greek economy.
The two graphs are correlated enough to accept the fact that when investing in the GREK ETF is pretty much the same as investing in the Greek stock market. Unless traders are seeking to buy specific Greek stocks in the NYSE such as NBG or CCH (two stocks MarketPlayGround is considering to buy after default), I suppose GREK exchange-traded fund is a welcome alternative. Personally I would wait until Greece has defaulted or has avoided the danger of a default or Euro-exit before trading online any Greek stock.
Here’s the 20 ETF holdings as of August 10:
| % of Net Assets | Name | Identifier | Market Price($) | Shares Held | Market Value($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18.18 | COCA COLA HELLENIC ADS | 1912EP104 | 17.72 | 81,930.00 | 1,451,799.60 |
| 11.05 | NATIONAL BANK OF GREECE | 633643606 | 1.63 | 541,337.00 | 882,379.31 |
| 10.80 | OPAP SA | 7107250 | 6.33 | 136,216.00 | 862,444.55 |
| 6.55 | HELLENIC TELECOM | 5051605 | 2.77 | 189,255.00 | 523,510.88 |
| 6.38 | TITAN CEMENT COMPANY | B01NXT7 | 15.67 | 32,521.00 | 509,764.88 |
| 6.15 | ALPHA CREDIT BANK | 4235864 | 1.57 | 311,912.00 | 490,837.67 |
| 5.42 | HELLENIC PETROLEUM S.A | 5475658 | 7.25 | 59,720.00 | 433,179.25 |
| 3.95 | JUMBO SA | 7243530 | 3.86 | 81,652.00 | 315,204.43 |
| 3.60 | PUBLIC POWER CORP | 7268298 | 2.94 | 97,885.00 | 287,613.90 |
| 3.55 | EFG EUROBANK ERGASIAS | 5654316 | 0.82 | 346,971.00 | 283,241.63 |
| 3.35 | MOTOR OIL (HELLAS) SA | 5996234 | 5.73 | 46,747.00 | 267,815.37 |
| 3.27 | BANK OF CYPRUS | 4505017 | 0.25 | 1,061,469.00 | 260,995.57 |
| 3.18 | PIRAEUS BANK SA | 4122676 | 0.27 | 955,730.00 | 253,796.02 |
| 2.91 | VIOHALCO | 4934611 | 2.77 | 84,129.00 | 232,714.84 |
| 2.57 | FOLLI FOLLIE GROUP | B681D63 | 7.25 | 28,256.00 | 204,955.00 |
| 2.33 | MYTILINEOS HOLDINGS | 5898664 | 2.53 | 73,376.00 | 185,830.54 |
| 2.12 | METKA S.A | 4584351 | 7.82 | 21,627.00 | 169,102.19 |
| 1.90 | ELLAKTOR SA | 4205351 | 1.35 | 112,024.00 | 151,495.45 |
| 1.38 | MARFIN FINANCIAL | B02LFN8 | 0.24 | 467,166.00 | 110,272.77 |
| 1.15 | CYPRUS POPULAR BANK | B1L3DX8 | 0.07 | 1,311,175.00 | 91,882.20 |
Fool.com debated last month whether Greek stocks will beat the Dow! While Greek economy is struggling, would you be investing in Greek stocks after the dust settles, or do you live dangerous enough to buy stocks at this time? Are Greek stock prices cheap enough to risk our money? Since it would be the second time I dig into ETF trading (after discussing about the Japan Index ETF), I’d love to know of your ETF trading experience in the comments below.
