The Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX) is the only stock exchange in Greece. It was founded in 1876 in the capital city of Athens and it is still located there to this day. It is owned by Hellenic Exchange, a company which is also listed on the exchange and publicly traded. The derivatives market, which started out as a separate entity, merged with the main exchange in 2002. ATHEX has 172 listings and a total market cap of € 18.5 billion. It is also a member of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS).
Notably, the exchange was closed down in June 2015 because of the Greek debt crisis. When it reopened, a week later, it lost more than 16% of its market value. Among its companies, the largest ones are Hellenic Telecom, OPAP and Eurobank Holdings. The highest point of the main index, the Composite Index, was reached on Sept 17, 1999. In total, ATHEX lists more than 30 indexes, which are closely followed by traders and investors around the world.
