HCMC imposes a temporary ban on all short sales

In light of the ongoing turbulence in the global financial markets, and while other NCAs have already paved the way by imposing temporary short selling bans, the Hellenic Capital Markets Commission (HCMC) issued a decision on 17 March, 2020, banning short sales on shares traded on the Athens Exchange. The HCMC is making use of its authority under Art. 20 of the Regulation 236/2012 (EU) 236/2012 on short selling and certain aspects of credit default swaps (SSR). According to HCMC’s decision all short sales, as well as all transactions other than short sales which create or increase the net short positions in shares admitted to traded on the regulated market of the Athens Stock Exchange, are banned. All instruments, which are relevant pursuant to the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 918/2012 for the purposes of calculating a net short position, fall within the scope of the temporary ban. The only exemption provided in this decision is based on Art. 20 para. 3 of the SSR and excludes from the ban market making activities on the following instruments: i) shares falling within the temporary ban, ii) stock derivatives of the abovementioned shares, iii) warrants of the above mentioned shares, iv) ETFs and Index derivatives, which include in their composition the abovementioned shares. The market making activities covered from this exemption include only such activities, which are conducted for hedging purposes.

The decision of the HCMC is in force from 18 March 2020 at 00:00:01(CET), until 24:00:00 (CET) on April 24, 2020.

For any question in relation to the above decision, as well as regarding to any financial markets query, emerging from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, do not hesitate to contact our partners, Michael Tsibris and Giannis Koumettis.