Greece elections: euro hits 11-year low after victory for anti-austerity party

The prospect of a standoff between Greece’s new leftwing government and the European Union briefly sent the euro to an 11-year low against the dollar on Monday, as the world digested Sunday’s victory by anti-austerity party Syriza.

Asian stocks also suffered a case of the jitters as risk-averse investors braced for a showdown between Greece’s new anti-bailout government and its European lenders.

Shares slid across the board in early trading: Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.5% to 17,418 points, while the broader Topix index was down 0.6%, to 1,394.76 by lunchtime in Tokyo, having gained almost 3% last week.

South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.2%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped by 0.3%, while China’s Shanghai Composite shed 0.8%.

Markets in Australia were closed for a public holiday.

The euro dipped 0.3% in early trading in Tokyo to around $1.117 , having earlier slipped beneath Friday’s 11-year low of $1.1115.

In anticipation of a Syriza victory on Sunday, the euro had slumped to 130.15 yen, its lowest level against the Japanese currency since September 2013.

Growing speculation that the Greek bailout is under threat would continue to hit the euro, said Chang Wei Liang at Mizuho Bank in Tokyo.

“Doubts over whether the EU bailout program will be extended should keep Greek bonds and the euro under pressure,” Chang said.

“Syriza’s victory could signal a broadening shift of support away from mainstream political parties toward economic populism, and might lead to more active political pressure to pare back austerity measures within Spain and Italy as well.”

The single currency had already plummeted on Friday after the European Central Bank [ECB] announced a trillion euro stimulus to boost growth and ward off deflation, mimicking anti-deflationary policies pioneered by Japan’s central bank.

Analysts said Sunday’s election result in Greece, which saw Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras triumph over prime minister Antonis Samaras, had cast doubt on Greece’s willingness to compromise with, say, an agreement to extend its debt and remain in the euro.

Yuzo Sakai, at Tokyo Forex and Ueda Harlow, said the ECB quantitative easing measures, combined with Sunday’s election result, had dealt the euro a ”double punch”.

“Although the possibility seems low that Greece will exit the eurozone, the change of government casts a sense of unease about how Greece will act within the eurozone and traders will be paying close attention to signals from the new government,” Sakai told Kyodo News.

“There doesn’t seem to be a clear bottom to the euro’s fall and some economists believe it is headed toward parity with the dollar.”

Some analysts have said that parity with the dollar will be more likely if the euro breaks the key level of US$1.10.

Others predicted that renewed tensions over Greece’s public debt were unlikely to affect investor sentiment for long.

“The risk of Greece leaving the euro zone isn’t huge,” said Toru Ibayashi, executive director of wealth management at UBS in Tokyo. “There’s uncertainty, but it’s a minor threat.”

Some fallout in Asia had been expected as soon as it became clear that Syriza was on course for victory over the incumbent centre-right New Democracy party, with 99% of the votes counted by Monday morning.