Today's Major Market Move: Cypriot Stock Market Drops 4.9% in Wednesday's Session

The worst performing stock market for Wednesday's session was the already beaten down Cypriot stock market which dropped 4.9% on the day. Equities in Cyprus are down over 87% since the beginning of 2011 and despite the recent positive news coming out of it's close neighbor Greece, are threatening to break through the lows of 2012.

Click here to go to the live chart.

The majority of equity markets were in the black on Wednesday with close to 80% of the equity indexes we track finishing in positive territory. The reason for Cyprus bucking this trend, and by such a large extent (4.9%), was the news that the troika (EU,ECB &IMF) had accepted a bailout request made by Cypriot authorities. Here's some more color from Fox news:

[Cypriot Finance Minister] Vassos Shiarly noted that the eurozone group of nations had accepted on Wednesday Cyprus' request for financial aid. He said experts from the so-called 'troika' will carry out an in-depth study into the Cypriot banking system and economy to calculate how much the country will need. He told a news conference that the study will take about a month.

The eurozone welcomed Cyprus' request for financial aid, saying that it is confident negotiated austerity measures "would address the financial, fiscal and structural challenges of the economy in a decisive manner and should allow Cyprus to return a sustainable growth path." In Washington, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said the fund is ready to join its European partners to help Cyprus return to stable economic growth and restore its banking sector.

Shiarly played down concerns that the EU bailout fund will require the kind of punishing wage cuts, job losses and tax increases that Greece had to swallow in exchange for €240 billion ($300 billion) in bailout money.

The last paragraph explains why the stock market reacted in such a strong negative fashion to what on the surface might appear to be positive news. Modest GDP growth is being predicted by the IMF for the next 3 years although stock market investors don't appear to be convinced.

Click here to go to the live chart.