Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 99-08-03

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Tuesday, August 03, 1999

‘Collusion driving up share prices ’

EACH PAPER featured a different lead story yesterday although these focused on the usual themes -- the Cyprus peace initiative, the EU accession course and the Cyprus Stock Exchange.

Politis

led with an interview with Constantinos Damtsas, a member of the board of the Central Bank, who claimed that there was collusion in driving the price of certain shares to artificially high levels. He said some 20 to 30 individuals (friends, relatives or partners) buy shares of a new public company at high prices encouraging other investors, who know nothing about the fundamentals, to do so as well.

In the end, the interview said, these investors are stuck with over-priced shares that will never yield a reasonable dividend. He also alleged that over-priced shares are calculatingly passed on to the "clueless investors" who are certain to lose money once prices begin to fall. The big mistake is that investors do not buy shares in anticipation of a healthy dividend, but in the hope that they would sell the shares a few weeks later and make a profit of one or two pounds per share.

Haravghi

reported that members of Disy, the party backing the government, continued to question the government’s defence policy. After deputy Christos Rotsas, a second Disy deputy, Stelios Stylianou questioned the credibility of the Unified Defence Dogma between Greece and Cyprus. Stylianou said that after the S-300 missiles humiliation "we should not talk about defence".

Will the Disy leadership bring the dissident deputy into line, as it had done in the case of Rotsas a week earlier, the paper asked. It claimed that the divisions within the party over the Dogma were undermining Disy’s credibility and also jeopardising the island’s relations with Greece.

Alithia

reported that Greece’s Foreign Minister George Papandreou is under intense pressure to resign after stating that the Muslims of Greece were of Turkish ethnic origin and that they could not be deprived the right to feel Turkish. Both opposition parties and the hardline wing of the ruling Pasok were calling for the resignation of Papandreou, who was given a vote of confidence by Prime Minister Costas Simitis.

Papandreou, who had put his resignation at the disposal of Simitis, insisted in a Sunday newspaper interview that what he had said was "the simple truth, without taboos".

To Tharros

said that "reliable diplomatic sources" predicted there would be some hard bargaining in the imminent Cyprus talks. It said that the US State Department would pressure Turkey into handing occupied Famagusta to the UN as a gesture of goodwill. The UN would return the town to the Cyprus government, the paper said.

For this to happen the Cyprus government would have to make some major concessions on the constitutional aspects of a settlement. It would all be part of process of give and take.

Simerini

reported that Greek American organisations have been calling for the intervention of President Clinton in the Cyprus peace efforts. They are also calling for the imposition of an economic embargo on Turkey if she refuses to help Cyprus peace efforts and does not comply with international law.

In a series of letters, sent to Clinton by the Greek-American Institute earlier this year, the US President was urged to undertake a personal initiative on Cyprus. If Turkey declined to commit itself to Clinton’s plan, then an embargo would have to be imposed.

Phileleftheros

said that EU enlargement would be divided into two "mini-phases", with Cyprus being included in the first group of countries which are expected to join the union in 2003. Estonia, Malta, Hungary and Slovenia would also be in the first group.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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