Greek Stocks Post World’s Biggest Drop on Call for Elections

Greek stocks posted today’s biggest slump among global equity markets after Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis called early elections, stoking speculation that efforts to revive the economy may be delayed. The benchmark ASE Index lost 88.75, or 3.6 percent, to 2,389.23 at 12:58 p.m. in Athens, the largest slide since June
22 and today’s worst drop among 90 indexes tracked by Bloomberg.

Karamanlis, whose New Democracy party has trailed the opposition socialist in polls for more than a year, said late yesterday he opted for elections before the end of his second term, in September 2011, to deal with the country’s economic problems. He didn’t specify a date and said he would meet with President Karolos Papoulias today to dissolve parliament.