Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-08-09

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

CONTENTS

[01] Exchange Rates: Friday

[02] Hyatt Regency shows H1 profit rise

[03] Weather Forecast: Hot and sunny on Friday

[04] Sports roundup - Rehagel

[05] Weak banks push Greek stocks lower

[01] Exchange Rates: Friday

Indicative buying rates

U.S. dollar 381.835

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 542.224

Irish punt 429.202

Belgian franc 008.379

Luxembourg franc 008.379

Dutch guilder 153.389

Italian lira (100) 017.457

Austrian schilling 024.565

Danish kroner 45.420

Swedish kroner 36.848

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 309.660

Swiss franc 224.502

Norwegian kroner 042.332

Cyprus pound 589.278

Canadian dollar 248.831

Australian dollar 197.273

[02] Hyatt Regency shows H1 profit rise

Hyatt Regency Hotels and Tourism SA on Thursday reported net earnings before tax of 7.07 billion drachmas in the first half, up from 5.9 billion drachmas on the same period of 2000.

Earnings accrued entirely from net operational profits, the company said in a statement.

Also in the first half of 2001, Hyatt's turnover totalled 25.2 billion drachmas, up 5.9 percent from the same period of last year, the statement said.

Turnover at Hyatt's casino rose by 5.0 percent to 23.4 billion drachmas in the first half of 2001. Occupancy at the hotel was more than 75 percent with turnover at 1.8 billion drachmas, up more than 18 percent.

Revenue from gambling machines rose by 9.8 percent to 10.1 billion drachmas from 9.2 billion drachmas in the first half of 2000, Hyatt said.

Management expects pre-tax profits of more than 14 billion drachmas in 2001 on turnover of 50.2 billion drachmas, the statement added.

[03] Weather Forecast: Hot and sunny on Friday

Sunshine and high temperatures are forecast throughout the country on Friday, with cloud forming from evening in the northern Ionian, Epirus and western Macedonia. Winds northerly, light to moderate, intermittently turning strong in parts of the Aegean. On the mainland and in the Ionian, temperatures will range from 21C to 38C; and in the Aegean islands from 25C to 35C. Sunny in Athens with temperatures between 24C and 39C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 22C to 37C.

[04] Sports roundup - Rehagel

Soccer

Veteran Bundesliga coach Otto Rehagel has been picked by Greeces football federation (EPO) as the new skipper for the underachieving Greek national squad.

The Greek national mens team failed to qualify for next years World Cup in Japan/S. Korea, a development that led to the resignation of coach Vassilis Daniil. EPOs board voted unanimously in favour of Rehagels hiring.

Panathinaikos Athens 2-1 victory over Slavia Prague on Wednesday evening -- in the first leg of a Champions League third qualifying round match -- has practically ensured the popular Athens clubs participation in the continents top football tournament.

Panathinaikos scored with Nikos Lymberopoulos in the 25th minute and Georgios Karagounis in the 56th, while Pavel Kuka scored for Slavia in the 68th. The second leg match will be played in Athens on Aug. 22

Meanwhile, in a friendly played in Athens hours earlier, Olympiakos Piraeus edged visiting Celta Vigo 4-3 in a crowd-pleasing match at the Olympic Stadium.

Basketball

The Greek national mens team downed the Israeli national squad 94-82 on Wednesday night, going undefeated and winning a tournament in Thessaloniki held just days before the upcoming ?Eurobasket? championship in neighbouring Turkey. Olympiakos forward Dimitris Papanikolaou led all scorers with 25 points.

Athletics

Sydney gold-medallist Costas Kenderis posted the best performance of 2001 in the 200-metre sprint on Wednesday during the second qualifying round at the World Track and Field Championship in Edmonton, Canada.

The Greek sprinters 20.03-second time also broke his personal best (20.09 at the Sydney Games), and established, of course, a new Greek national record in the process.

[05] Weak banks push Greek stocks lower

Banks shares remained under pressure for one more session on the Athens Stock Exchange on Thursday pushing the general index slight lower despite gains in smaller and medium capitalisation stocks.

Alpha Bank (-1.26%), EFG Eurobank (-1.10%), ETEBAbank (-2.32%) and Commercial Bank (-0.22%) led the sector's decline reflecting market disappointment over the sector's profitability.

The general index ended 0.04 percent lower at 2,634.89 points, off the day's lows of 2,614.17 points and the day's highs of 2,657.94 points.

Turnover was a low 98.68 million euros, or 33.63 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended at 1,476.40 points, off 0.13 percent, the FTSE/ASE 40 index rose 0.27 percent to end at 301.39 and the FTSE/ASE SMALLCAP 80 index ended at 875.03 points, up 0.42 percent.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 258.12 points, up 0.35 percent.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 182 to 117 with another 53 issues unchanged.

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