Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-08-29

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

CONTENTS

[01] Archbishop to present ID petiton results to Stephanopoulos

[02] Athens Stock Exchange opening: fall

[01] Archbishop to present ID petiton results to Stephanopoulos

Relations between the Church and the State looked set to sour even further on Wednesday, as Archbishop Christodoulos prepared to take his 3-million-plus signatures to present to President of the Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos at 1:30 p.m.

The head of the Greek Orthodox Church, to which the vast majority of Greeks belong, is expected to repeat demands made on Tuesday for a nationwide referendum on whether the optional record of religion on identity cards should be allowed, or else legislative measures to that effect.

On Tuesday, the Archbishop had announced that 3,008,901 people had signed a Church petition on holding such a referendum. He asked for dialogue with the government on the issue.

[02] Athens Stock Exchange opening: fall

Equities were down at the opening of trade Wednesday on the Athens Stock Exchange, with sellers predominant on the market. At 10:20 a.m., the general index was down 0.98 percent at 2,778.47 points and turnover was 12.5 million euro.

Individual sector indices were mostly moving down, with the biggest losses for the foods and beverages index, down 1.84 percent. The only index with gains was construction, up 0.16 percent.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavily traded stocks was down 1.04 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index was down 0.73 percent, and the FTSE/ASE SMALLCAP index was down 0.83 percent.

Of the stocks moved, 45 were up, 207 were down and 35 were unchanged.

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