Asia Stocks Rise as Vote Signals Greece Will Stay in Euro (Source: Bloomberg)
Asian stocks jumped, driving the regional benchmark index toward a one-month high, as concern over Greece exiting the euro eased after projections showed pro- bailout parties won enough seats to control parliament. Canon Inc. (7751), a camera maker than gets 31 percent of sales in Europe, rose 2.5 percent in Tokyo. Inpex Corp., Japan’s biggest energy explorer, advanced 3.4 percent as crude futures jumped for third day. Lynas Corp. surged 10 percent in Sydney after Malaysia rejected an appeal by local residents to cancel the Australian miner’s license to run the world’s largest rare- earths refining facility in the Southeast Asian nation.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) climbed 1.4 percent to 115.78 at 10:19 a.m. in Tokyo, heading for its highest close since May 15. Almost 14 shares advanced for each that fell in the gauge. About $5.5 trillion has been erased from share prices around the world since March amid concern growth is slowing in the U.S. and China, the two largest economies, and as Europe’s debt crisis intensified. “There’s a short-term sigh of relief,” said Belinda Allen, senior investment analyst at Colonial First State Global Asset Management in Sydney, which oversees about $145 billion. “It removes the tail risk event that we were concerned about in terms of Greece leaving the European Union immediately. We all know there’s still a long and hard road ahead for Greece and the problems of Europe aren’t solved by this election.”
China Stock Futures Rise on Speculation Europe Crisis Is Easing (Source: Bloomberg)
China’s stock-index futures rose as concern over Greece exiting the euro eased after projections showed politicians that support a bailout won enough seats to control parliament. Futures on the CSI 300 Index (SHSZ300) expiring in July, the most active contract, gained 0.7 percent to 2,577 as of 9:18 a.m. local time. SAIC Motor Co. and BYD Co., the automaker backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, may advance after the Economic Information Daily reported China will exempt new energy vehicles and plug-in hybrid models from a sales tax. The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) rose 0.5 percent to 2,306.85 on June 15, capping a 1.1 percent advance last week. The CSI 300 Index added 0.3 percent to 2,568.05 on June 15. The Bloomberg China-US 55 Index (CH55BN), the measure of the most-traded U.S.-listed Chinese companies, advanced 1.6 percent in New York.
Concerns that a growth slowdown is deepening and Greece will leave the euro area have pushed the Shanghai index down 6.3 percent from this year’s high set on March 2. Stocks in the measure are valued at 10 times estimated earnings, compared with the five-year average of 17.8, Bloomberg weekly data showed.
Japan Stocks Advance as Greek Vote Eases Euro Concerns (Source: Bloomberg)
Japan stocks rose, with the Nikkei (MXAP) 225 Stock Average rising the most since April, as official projections showed parties supporting Greece’s bailout won enough seats to control parliament, easing concern the euro currency bloc would lose one of its 17 members. Power-tool maker Makita Corp. (6586), which gets the highest proportion of sales in Europe among Topix companies, advanced 5.1 percent. Nomura Holdings Inc. (8604), the country’s largest brokerage, rose 3 percent as securities firms posted the biggest advance on the Topix Index. Honda Motor Co. rose 2.6 percent on a report the automaker will shift output to smaller models to meet growing demand while scrapping some high-end sedans. The Nikkei 225 climbed 2.2 percent to 8,759.11 at 10:01 a.m. in Tokyo, its biggest rise since April 18, with all but seven stocks on the gauge advancing. The broader Topix gained 2.1 percent to 741.64, with volume 3.4 percent higher than the 30- day average.
“Greece’s election is a good result and will provide some short-term relief,” said Nader Naeimi, Sydney-based head of dynamic asset allocation at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which manages almost $100 billion. “This will put to rest for a little while the prospect of Greece leaving the euro.”
U.S. Stock Futures Rise as Vote Signals Greece in Euro (Source: Bloomberg)
U.S. stock futures rose, following a two-week gain in equities, as concern over Greece exiting the euro eased after official projections showed that the largest pro-bailout parties won enough seats to form a coalition. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in September added 0.7 percent to 1,346.40 at 9:12 a.m. in Tokyo, where the Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced 2.1 percent. The benchmark measure for U.S. equities advanced 1.3 percent last week. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 86 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,796. The euro rose 0.9 percent to $1.2745. “This allows Greece to step back from the brink,” said Peter Sorrentino, who helps oversee $14.7 billion at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati. “It gives Europe a little breathing room to deal with the Spanish situation. It buys them more time. We’ll get some positive carry through.”
The election would give New Democracy and Pasok 162 seats if they agree to govern together in the 300-member parliament, according to the official projection by the Interior Ministry in Athens based on 95 percent of the vote. Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy had 29.9 percent, or 129 seats, and Socialist Pasok took 12.4 percent for 33 seats, the projection showed. Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza, which advocated reneging on the terms of the bailout, won 26.8 percent, or 71 seats.
U.S. Stocks Rise for 2nd Straight Week on Stimulus Bets (Source: Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks rose, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its first back-to-back weekly gain since April, amid speculation central banks will take steps to stimulate growth and contain a prolonged debt crisis in Europe. All 10 S&P 500 groups advanced. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) surged 4 percent, pacing gains among financial companies, after Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon testified about his bank’s $2 billion trading loss. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (COG) jumped 9.7 percent as a rally in natural-gas prices helped lift energy shares. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) climbed 4.8 percent after getting clearance for its Synthes Inc. acquisition. Facebook Inc. (FB) surged 11 percent, its first weekly increase since its May debut. The S&P 500 rose 1.3 percent to 1,342.84 for the week, extending its 2012 advance to 6.8 percent. The Dow (INDU) Jones Industrial Average climbed 212.97 points, or 1.7 percent, to 12,767.17, building on the previous week’s 3.6 percent increase.
“I’m pretty convinced that they will keep throwing money at it and trying to buy more time” to tame the European crisis, Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees $350 billion. “It means the Federal Reserve is going to have to have some liquidity event to keep the U.S. dollar from spiking substantially higher, and that in turn probably gives us another leg up in the stock market.”
European Stocks Post Second Weekly Gain on Stimulus Hopes (Source: Bloomberg)
European stocks advanced for a second week as Greeks prepared to vote, after the Bank of England announced credit-easing measures, boosting optimism central banks will take steps to stimulate the global economy. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc jumped at least 11 percent as the Bank of England unveiled two plans to boost cash supply in the banking system. National Bank of Greece SA surged 31 percent. Etablissements Maurel & Prom rose 13 percent after a report said it may be a takeover target. Nokia Oyj tumbled 18 percent after it announced as many as 10,000 job cuts and its debt rating was cut. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.9 percent to 244.21 this week. The gauge has still declined 10 percent from its high on March 16 amid growing concern that Greece may be forced to leave the euro currency union after the elections on June 17.
“There is a green light for more stimulus as inflation comes down, which means central banks can be stimulative,” said Daniel Weston, a portfolio adviser at Schroeder Equities GmbH in Munich. “Rising German bund yields this week on Tuesday and Wednesday have also seen more money come into equities from bonds, as the potential risk of Germany having to help the euro zone increases.”
FOREX-Euro firm as c.banks gear to counter Greek fallout
LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) - The euro hovered below three-week highs against the U.S. dollar , as investors trimmed bearish bets on expectations that global central banks will step in to counter any adverse fallout from Sunday's election in Greece.
"Investors will be reluctant to hold any meaningful positions either way going into the weekend," said Ankita Dudani, G-10 currency strategist at RBS.
Euro Gains as Greeks Back Pro-Bailout Parties; Yen Falls (Source: Bloomberg)
The euro rose to the strongest in almost a month as official projections showed pro-bailout parties won enough seats to control Greece’s parliament, easing concern the country would be forced from the currency bloc. The 17-nation euro extended last week’s 1 percent jump versus the dollar after figures from the Interior Ministry indicated the election would give New Democracy and Pasok a combined 162 seats if they agree to govern together in the 300- member parliament. The dollar and yen declined against most of major counterparts as Asian stocks advanced, sapping demand for so-called safe-haven currencies. “The two pro-austerity groups getting a majority together in the parliament is a very good outcome,” said Daisuke Karakama, a market economist in Tokyo at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd., a unit of Japan’s third-largest banking group by market value. “It’s the best-case scenario for the election, prompting traders to cover short positions in the euro,” he said referring to bets that an asset’s price will fall.
The euro reached $1.2748, the most since May 22, before trading at $1.2703 as of 10:19 a.m.in Tokyo, up 0.5 percent from the close in New York last week. It sank to $1.2288 on June 1, the weakest level since July 2010. The euro jumped 1.2 percent to 100.67 yen and 0.6 percent to 80.90 U.K. pence, after touching 79.68 the weakest since May 16.
Korean Won Rises to One-Month High, Bonds Fall After Greece Vote (Source: Bloomberg)
South Korea’s won rose to a one- month high and government bonds declined as official projections showed that politicians who support Greece’s bailout won enough seats in an election yesterday to form a new government. Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy party won Greece’s second round of elections, official projections indicated, easing concern the nation would reject austerity measures needed to qualify for a bailout and leave the euro. The Kospi (KOSPI) Index rallied 2.1 percent. Leaders from the Group of 20 nations meet today to discuss Europe’s debt crisis and the Federal Reserve will announce its projections for the U.S. economy on June 20. “Concerns surrounding Greece disappeared and this will have a positive effect on the market supporting the won,” said Lee Jin Ill, a Seoul-based currency trader for Hana Bank. “Players are now focusing on the policies to be announced at the Fed meeting and the G20 summit, and steep gains in the won may be limited with concerns moving to Spain issues.”
The won gained 0.7 percent to 1,157.65 per dollar as of 9:28 a.m. in Seoul, advancing for a fourth day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The currency touched 1,156.75 earlier, the strongest since May 15. Its one-month implied volatility, a measure of exchange-rate swings used to price options, dropped 72 basis points to 9.73 percent. Sales at major South Korean department stores rose 1 percent in May from a year earlier, following a 3.4 percent decline the previous month, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a statement yesterday. The yield on Spanish 10-year bonds reached 6.998 percent on June 14, a euro-era record
Third Fed Stimulus Won’t Be Better Than QE2, Romney Says (Source: Bloomberg)
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the Federal Reserve’s attempts at stimulating the U.S. economy “did not have the desired effect” and a new round of quantitative easing by the central bank wouldn’t fare better. The second round of quantitative easing, a series of bond purchases referred to as QE2, “was not extraordinarily harmful, but it does put in question the future value of the dollar and it will obviously encourage some inflation,” Romney said in an interview that aired today on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “A QE3 would do the same thing.” With the CBS interview taped yesterday, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee spent Father’s Day campaigning in Ohio with his wife, two sons and several grandchildren, on the third day of a six-state bus tour.
“We need someone who puts jobs No. 1, not Obamacare No. 1,” Romney told a rally in Newark, Ohio. President Barack Obama has “tried to convince us that he’s made things better but he hasn’t made things better,” Romney said. “He’s failed. He deserves to go home and give someone new a chance.”
Fed Seen Twisting to Risk Management to Spur U.S. Growth (Source: Bloomberg)
Federal Reserve officials must choose this week between their best estimates and their worst fears of what will happen to the U.S. economy. Policy makers will bring new forecasts to their June 19-20 meeting and probably will mark down their April central-tendency estimate for growth of 2.4 percent to 2.9 percent this year. Lurking in the background is the risk of increasing financial stress in Europe and stubbornly high U.S. unemployment that has remained above 8 percent for 40 consecutive months. All this could prompt them to move away from their outlook for moderate growth and tilt toward a “risk-management” strategy pioneered by former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, which puts more emphasis on tracking and containing high-cost threats. Both Janet Yellen, the Fed’s vice chairman, and William C. Dudley, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, used the phrase in the past month.
“What we are hearing from Vice Chairman Yellen and President Dudley, and the minutes of the last meeting, is that there are more risks on the downside,” said Donald Kohn, the former Fed vice chairman who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “The ability to combat weakness with interest rates at the zero lower-bound is limited and uncertain. In a situation like this, their reasoning is you might want to buy some insurance.”
Calderon Says G-20 May Boost IMF’s Anti-Crisis Firewall (Source: Bloomberg)
World leaders meeting in Mexico will boost the $430 billion firewall the International Monetary Fund announced in April, host President Felipe Calderon said. “I estimate that there will be a larger capitalization than the pre-accord reached in Washington, which will be finalized here,” Calderon told reporters in the Mexican coastal resort of Los Cabos yesterday. “But I don’t want to speculate by how much.” Leaders of the Group of 20 nations are gathering in Los Cabos for a two-day summit dominated by the financial crisis in Europe and its risk to the global economy. While the G-20 agreed earlier this year to boost IMF resources that could be channeled to Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week called on the G-20 to do more. “It’s going to be the first time the fund is capitalized without the U.S., which reflects the importance of emerging markets,” Calderon said. While he said he regrets the U.S. refusal to take part, that won’t prevent it being the largest recapitalization in the fund’s history.
“I hope there’s a very important agreement about the IMF,” Calderon said.
China Abandons Role of Global Engine as Wen Tempers Stimulus (Source: Bloomberg)
Premier Wen Jiabao has an unspoken message to his Group of 20 counterparts in Mexico today: This time, don’t count on a growth bailout from China. In the depths of the 2008 credit crunch, Wen’s 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) fiscal injection over two years and 17.6 trillion yuan credit surge helped prop up the global economy. In China, it fueled a property bubble, stoked inflation and amassed bad debts that Fitch Ratings says weakened the banking system. “The government is trying to strike a better balance between stabilizing growth in the short term and adjusting structure in the long term,” said Peng Wensheng, chief economist in Beijing at China International Capital Corp., who worked at the International Monetary Fund and Hong Kong’s central bank. Total stimulus this year may be less than one- third the size of the 5.4 trillion yuan fiscal and monetary firepower of 2009, Peng said.
Investment is more strategically focused than the efforts that year that helped cushion everyone from Australian iron-ore exporters to General Motors Co., which saw its Chinese sales soar 67 percent as it coped with bankruptcy at home. Of some 818 billion yuan in projects recently approved, 55 percent were for clean energy or subsidies for fuel-efficient cars, according to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.
China Economy to Bottom This Quarter, PBOC Adviser Says (Source: Bloomberg)
China’s economy will bottom out this quarter and rebound in the following three months as government measures to stabilize a slowdown take effect, an academic adviser to the nation’s central bank said. “The second quarter should be the lowest point” this year, Chen Yulu said in an interview at a forum in Beijing on June 16. Full-year growth “should be able to hold up above 8 percent,” he said. Policy makers in the world’s second-biggest economy are shoring up expansion as Europe’s deepening debt crisis curtails exports and foreign investment, and property curbs at home damp demand. As leaders of the Group of 20 nations meet in Mexico today, President Hu Jintao said he was confident China would maintain steady expansion and contribute to the global recovery.
“Facing a complex and grave external economic environment, China has taken targeted measures to strengthen and improve macroeconomic regulation, accelerate the shift of the growth model, adjust economic structure and build long-term mechanisms to boost domestic demand,” Hu said in a written interview with the Mexican newspaper Reforma, the official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. “We are confident that China will maintain steady and robust growth and thus make solid contribution to global economic growth.”
Noda Ends Japan Nuclear Freeze, Risking Backlash at Polls (Source: Bloomberg)
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ended Japan’s month-long freeze on nuclear power, approving a reactor restart that combined with a tax increase may undermine his political support. Two reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co. (9503)’s Ohi nuclear plant can be operated safely, Noda declared June 16 after meeting with three Cabinet ministers who share approval authority. The utility, which serves the $1 trillion economy of Japan’s second-biggest urban region, said it would immediately begin work to start one reactor. Japan is reopening nuclear plants that provided about 30 percent of its energy before being idled after the March 2011 meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501)’s Fukushima station. The decision followed by one day a deal with opposition parties to abandon some campaign pledges in return for agreement to double the nation’s consumption tax. Majorities in public opinion polls oppose both the restarts and the tax increase.
Noda “could end up like all his predecessors in the dustbin of history very quickly,” said Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus. “The dustbin is waiting for him.”
Mexico Urges G-20 to Reconsider World Challenges Amid Crisis (Source: Bloomberg)
A video image of giraffes bounding across the African savannah and a dramatic interpretation of the “Mad as Hell” monologue from the 1976 film “Network” greeted delegates and businessmen at the start of the Group of 20 summit in Mexico. While much of the summit in the beach resort of Los Cabos will be dominated by the outcome of elections in Greece, host Mexico is encouraging participants to expand their minds and rethink global priorities. “We do want to shake things up, we do want to do things differently,” Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, said in speech at an event today to kick off the summit, called “Rethinking the G-20.” The day-long conference of presentations by politicians, artists and academics was capped by a panel discussion led by host Felipe Calderon, the outgoing president of Mexico.
G-20 leaders from Germany’s Angela Merkel to China’s Hu Jintao begin arriving tomorrow to the beach resort of Los Cabos for two days of meetings that will dominated by Europe’s debt crisis. The June 18-19 meeting takes place amid the weakest international economy since the 2009 recession and a day after parliamentary elections in Greece.
Greece Races as Cash Dwindles With Europe Seeking Return to Cuts (Source: Bloomberg)
Greece’s two traditional political rivals are in a race to forge an unprecedented coalition as the state’s cash dwindles, bank deposits flee and Europe demands renewed austerity pledges before releasing more emergency aid. Greece will run out of money in mid-July, the Syriza party, which placed second in yesterday’s election, said on June 13 after being briefed by Acting Finance Minister Giorgios Zanias. Caretaker Labor and Social Security Minister Antonis Roupakiotis refused to offer assurances pensions will be paid in August, Athens News Agency reported the same day. “There’s no time to lose or leeway for small party games,” Antonis Samaras, leader of New Democracy, said in Athens yesterday after placing first in a rerun vote that will force him to rule with the third-place socialist Pasok party. “The country must be governed.”
Two months of political limbo threaten to cut off the quarterly disbursement of euro-area and International Monetary Fund loans that have kept the country afloat since 2010. Greece, in its fifth year of recession, would face having to abandon the 17-nation euro and reintroduce the drachma were the flow of rescue funds to stop.
Hollande Bolstered as Socialists Win French Parliament Control (Source: Bloomberg)
French President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party and its allies won an absolute majority in the National Assembly, exit polls showed, paving the way for them to pass legislation without the aid of other members of parliament. The Socialist bloc won 314 out of the 577 seats, pollster CSA said, with 289 needed for a majority. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement party and its allies have 228 seats, CSA said, and the anti-euro National Front won two seats. Turnout in the second and decisive round of legislative elections yesterday was 56 percent. “The French people have amplified their call for change,” Socialist Party Head Martine Aubry, said on France 2 television. The victory gives the Socialists control of practically every political institution in France -- the presidency, the upper and lower houses of parliament, all but two of the regions and most of the country’s big cities, communes and departments - - a first in the Fifth Republic.
Control of the lower house of parliament will allow Hollande to push through the tough decisions needed amid Europe’s debt crisis. With growth stalling at home, Hollande now faces the task of telling the French people that the state’s depleted coffers may mean cuts in spending and higher taxes as he makes good on his deficit-cutting promises.
Euro Leaders Signal Softening on Greek Austerity as Summit Looms (Source: Bloomberg)
European governments signaled a willingness to relent on Greece’s austerity measures as leaders turn from an election victory by Greek bailout proponents to focus on safeguarding the other 98 percent of the euro economy. Greece’s new government must emerge “swiftly” from yesterday’s contest, which showed pro-bailout New Democracy in a position to form a coalition, euro finance chiefs said in a statement. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said negotiators could consider giving Greece more time to fix its finances, telling ZDF television that the political gridlock over the past six weeks “has done damage.” Greece’s international monitors will “return to Athens as soon as a new government is in place to exchange views with the new government on the way forward,” the finance ministers’ statement said. They want “the swift formation of a new Greek government that will take ownership of the adjustment program.”
The election result in the country where the debt crisis began in 2009 paves the way for euro leaders’ fourth make-or- break summit in a year. While Chancellor Angela Merkel warned global leaders last week that Germany rejected what she called quick-fix management of the crisis, a softening of the terms of Greece’s bailout may provide a template for how euro leaders overcome policy differences.
Samaras Begins Bid to Form Greek Coalition to Stave Off Crisis (Source: Bloomberg)
Greek election winner Antonis Samaras begins his second bid in six weeks to form a coalition as euro-area finance chiefs pressured him to form a government that would keep bailout aid flowing. European officials indicated a willingness to ease the terms of rescue loans as long as Greece, with just weeks of cash in the bank, re-commits to their austerity demands. The prospect that Samaras would lose to anti-bailout leader Alexis Tsipras rattled markets concerned that Greece may quit the 17-nation currency union. The result sent the euro higher. “The Greek people expressed their will to stay anchored with the euro, remain an integral part of the euro zone and honor the country’s commitments,” Samaras told supporters in Athens yesterday after the election result. “There is no time for petty politics.”
The vote forced Greeks, in a fifth year of recession, to choose open-ended austerity to stay in the euro or reject the terms of a bailout and risk the turmoil of exiting the union. With the 17-nation currency’s future on the line, finance ministers pledged to assist Greece in its struggle with the cycle of austerity and recession that has trapped the country since it became the first victim of the debt crisis in 2010.
Europe Gets Emerging Market Crisis Ultimatum as G-20 Meet (Source: Bloomberg)
European leaders are facing pressure at the Group of 20 summit in Mexico to halt market uncertainty and stamp out the debt crisis as global partners hint at help to keep the world economy afloat. As elections in Greece reduced the immediate risk of the euro area’s breakup, China and Indonesia signaled growing exasperation with more than two years of European crisis- fighting that has failed to stem the threat of global contagion. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said that policy makers bungled their attempt to rescue Spain’s banks. “I hope that one way or another our European colleagues will reach an agreement on rigorous methods to manage the crisis,” Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who heads Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, said in a speech in the Mexican resort of Los Cabos yesterday. “The absence of such methods will have unsettling consequences to all of us.”
The two-day G-20 summit starting today kicks off a week of crisis meetings taking place after Spain this month became the fourth euro-region nation to seek a bailout amid the weakest global economy since the 2009 recession.
Greek Pro-Bailout Parties Take Majority, Projection Shows (Source: Bloomberg)
Greece’s largest pro-bailout parties, New Democracy and Pasok, won enough seats to forge a parliamentary majority, official projections showed, easing concern the country was headed toward an imminent exit from the euro. The currency rose on the result. The election would give New Democracy and Pasok 163 seats if they agree to govern together in the 300-member parliament, according to the official projection by the Interior Ministry in Athens based on 63 percent of today’s vote. “For markets, a majority for an ND-Pasok coalition would be a relief,” Holger Schmieding, London-based chief economist at Berenberg Bank, said in a note today. “It would very much reduce the risk of a Greek euro exit.” The vote forced Greeks, in a fifth year of recession, to choose open-ended austerity to stay in the euro or reject the terms of a bailout and risk the turmoil of exiting the 17-nation currency. The election threatened to dominate a summit of world leaders that starts tomorrow in Mexico.
Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy had 30.1 percent, or 130 seats, and Socialist Pasok took 12.6 percent for 33 seats, the projection showed. Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza, which advocated reneging on the terms of the bailout, won 26.5 percent, or 71 seats. Samaras called for a government of national salvation.
