Greek banks have lost almost 45pc of their value in the three days since Syriza ascended to power in Sunday’s election as the dual threats of a bank run and the loss of support from the European Central Bank threaten a liquidity squeeze.
The FTSE/Athex Bank Index, a weighted index of Greek bank shares, fell to a new all-time low yesterday. National Bank of Greece, Piraeus, Alpha Bank and Eurobank all slumped further, with 8.2bn wiped off their combined market values since the election.
It came as ministers that they would block the sale of the government’s controlling stake in the Public Power Corporation of Greece (PPC), which runs almost all of the country’s retail electricity market and accounts for about two thirds of the nation’s power output. The move is part of a pledge by ministers to reinstate sacked government workers and restore cuts to pensions.
“We will halt immediately any privatisation of PPC,” said Panagiotis Lafazanis, Greece’s new energy minister. “There will be a new PPC which will help considerably the restoration of the country’s productive activities.”
The government halted the privatisation of Greece’s main port, Piraeus, on Tuesday. Chinese shipping giant Cosco had planned to turn the port into its new European hub.

"What we all want is that Greece recovers, creating growth and jobs, that it reduces inequality, that it can deal with the problem of its debt and remains in the euro area," he said in an interview.
However, others have taken a harder stance. "The message ‘we want your support but not your conditions’ won’t fly,” said Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem. “My message will be that we’re open to cooperation but that the support from Europe also means the Greeks have to make an effort.”
The Institute of German Economic Research (IW), one of the country's leading institutes, suggested that a Greek exit would be preferable to relaxing the country's bail-out agreement.
"If Greece is going to take a tough line, then Europe will take a tough line as well," it said.
Greece's current bail-out programme expires at the end of February, and experts say it is unlikely that any renegotiation would be concluded by then. A further extension would enable the ECB to maintain liquidity support to Greece.