Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-12-06

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] NATO-Greece-Turkey-CBMs

[02] Agricultural Bank-listing

[03] Creta Farm-results

[04] Nationwide strike - Thursday

[05] ADEX-November report

[06] ASE-close

[07] Greece-consumers-protection

[08] Greece-foreign exchange

[01] NATO-Greece-Turkey-CBMs

BRUSSELS (ANAG. Zitouniati) - NATO General Secretary Lord Robertson on Wednesday announced that Greece and Turkey reached an agreement to notify each other regarding their national armed forces exercises.

He said that the agreement was reached during discussions between the Greek and Turkish permanent representatives to NATO, for the striking of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) between the two countries, which are held under NATO auspices.

[02] Agricultural Bank-listing

Greece's Capital Markets' Committee on Wednesday approved Agricultural Bank's initial public offering paving the way for the bank's listing on the main market of the Athens Stock Exchange.

The plan envisages issuance of 13,496,500 new common nominal shares, of which 11,496,500 will be offered through a public offering and the the remaining 2,000,000 shares will be held by the Greek state.

[03] Creta Farm-results

Creta Farm on Wednesday announced a 44 percent rise in its nine-month turnover to 7.816 billion drachmas from 5.428 billion the same period last year.

Profits jumped 110 percent to 1.013 billion drachmas frm 482 million in 1999.

The company also reported a significant decline in its long-term debt to 80 million drachmas in the January-September period this year from 1.104 billion drachmas in the first nine months of 1999, a decline of 92.11 percent.

Creta Farm invested a total of 4.893 billion drachmas in the first nine months of 2000, covering around 93 percent of the capital raised from its initial public offering (5.350 billion drachmas).

Its five year investment plan envisages spending more than 25 billion drachmas.

[04] Nationwide strike - Thursday

Public transports throughout Greece, including the recently inaugurated Athens metro, are expected to come to a halt on Thursday as part of a nation-wide 24-hour strike against the governments proposed labour reforms.

State-run Olympic Airways will schedule one flight per route, while train employees and passenger shipping workers will also join the strike. Specifically, ferry boats will stop disembarking from Piraeus for 24 hours starting at dawn on Thursday.

The strike will affect practically all civil service sectors, state-owned utilities, banks, the post office and even public hospitals.

A keynote rally is set for the Pedion tou Areos square in downtown Athens at 11 a.m. whereas other rallies are scheduled in other major cities.

Among others, labour unions want implementation of a 35-hour workweek without a reduction in pay.

[05] ADEX-November report

Turnover volume on the Athens Derivatives Exchange improved significantly in November, totalling 298,638 contracts from 236,370 contracts the previous month, an increase of 26 percent, official figures showed on Wednesday.

The same increase, 26 percent, showed the average daily transactions in November, to 6,787 contracts from 5,373 in October.

Future contracts on the FTSE/ASE 20 index rose 26.6 percent in turnover to a daily average of 3,649 contracts, up from 2,882 in October.

Future contracts on the FTSE/ASE Mid 40 index increased 17.6 percent to a daily average of 2,017 contracts from 1,715 the previous month.

Future contracts on Greek state bonds jumped 34.9 percent in turnover to a daily average of 768 contracts, from 569 in October.

Official ADEX figures also showed a 15.6 percent rise in client codes in November from the previous month.

[06] ASE-close

Equity prices ended Wednesday's session sharply higher on the Athens Stock Exchange, a development combined with a significant improvement in turnover was seen by traders as evidence of a steady recovery of the market.

Traders said that bold economic measures announced by the government in the previous two days and a spectacular rebound in international bourses helped in the improvement of climate in the domestic market.

Blue chip stocks, particularly banks and telecommunications, attracted heavy demand pushing several shares sharply lower. Alpha Bank led the list of gainers (up 11.64 percent), followed by Panafon (up 10.9 pct), Hellenic Telecoms (up 4.85 pct) while Cosmote jumped 6.9 percent above its entry price.

The general index ended 5.74 percent higher at 3,531.07 points, off the day's highs of 6.53 percent, with turnover a hefty 124.73 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 6.36 percent higher at 2,137.02 points, while the FTSE/ASE 40 index rose 4.45 percent to 447.66 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 3.80 percent higher at 374.14 points.

[07] Greece-consumers-protection

Greece on Wednesday adopted EU rules on consumer protection from distance sales and collocative advertisement, harmonising the country's existing regulatory framework to EU directives with a ministerial decision signed on the initiative of Development Deputy Minister Milena Apostolaki.

The decision envisages that suppliers are obliged to offer detailed informations to consumers over the company's data, product specifications, payment terms, before signing of a contract. It also envisages extending the time period for a consumer to withdraw its interest on a product to three months, from 15 days currently.

[08] Greece-foreign exchange

The drachma resumed its upward trend against the US dollar in the domestic foreign exchange market on Wednesday, after Tuesday's fall, following the euro's advance above the 88 cents against the dollar in international markets.

The Greek currency rose to 385.180 drachmas per dollar at the day's fixing, from 386.300 the previous day.

The drachma was unchanged against the euro currency at 340.640 drachmas per euro.

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article