Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-10-15

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

CONTENTS

[01] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

[02] Athens, Prague promote dialogue betweeen West, Islam

[03] Greece seeks EU directive to curb market manipulation

[04] Weather Forecast: Sunny on Tuesday

[05] Greek stocks end flat in record-low turnover

[06] Indicative fuel prices: heating oil price plummets

[01] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

Indicative tourist buying rates

U.S. dollar 371.592

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 538.854

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 45.447

Swedish kroner 35.569

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 307.841

Swiss franc 228.768

Norwegian kroner 042.393

Cyprus pound 588.667

Canadian dollar 237.953

Australian dollar 190.949

[02] Athens, Prague promote dialogue betweeen West, Islam

The foreign ministers of Greece and the Czech Republic on Monday cited their traditionally warm ties with the Arab world as a basis for aiding efforts to start a wide-ranging dialogue between Islamic countries and the West, a more-or-less international priority following the shocking Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent military strikes against Afghanistan.

The statements came one day after Greek FM George Papandreou completed a one-day lightning visit to Damascus for talks with Syrian leadership, before returning to Athens to meet with his Czech counterpart Jan Kavan.

"We're cooperating within the framework of NATO, but additionally, Greece and the Czech Republic -- especially the latter for many years -- have significant contacts with Arab countries. Therefore, we decided to explore the possibility for initiatives and close cooperation in order to contribute to a substantive dialogue; a dialogue between Arab and Muslim states, on the one hand, and the West," Papandreou said at a press conference in the Greek capital.

On his part, Kavan said an investigation by Czech authorities has confirmed that suspected Sept. 11 "air terror" mastermind Mohammed Atta briefly passed through Prague in June 2000.

"That's all I can confirm. Other information, which has Mohammed Atta coming into contact with a certain Iraqi diplomat ... and cooperating with this diplomat, is only conjecture, it cannot be confirmed. Nor can I confirm another report from US sources, namely, that Mohammed Atta visited Prague on more than one occasion," he stressed.

According to the Czech foreign minister, he personally asked the aforementioned Iraqi diplomat to leave the Visegrad country last year due to "activities unbecoming a diplomat".

Kavan, who also serves as deputy premier, cited what he called very close cooperation between the US and Czech intelligence services as related to past activities of the 19 terrorists blamed for the attacks in the United States last month.

[03] Greece seeks EU directive to curb market manipulation

Greece's capital markets commission said on Monday that it wanted the European Union to issue a directive on curbing insider trading and the manipulation of stock markets.

Speaking in Brussels, commission chief Stavros Thomadakis said the measure was imperative in order to protect investors in European stock exchanges, and as a part of a unification process for markets anticipated in the future.

Thomadakis was asked to outline his position on the matter by the Europarliament's financial and monetary affairs committee.

[04] Weather Forecast: Sunny on Tuesday

Mostly sunny weather is forecast on Tuesday, with scattered cloud in the east and south. Winds northerly, light to very strong, turning gale force in some parts of the country. In the north, temperatures will range from 10C to 23C, in the west from 15C to 27C; and on the rest of the mainland from 19C to 26C. Sun and wind in Athens, with temperatures between 15C and 25C. Scattered cloud in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 12C to 23C.

[05] Greek stocks end flat in record-low turnover

Equity prices ended Monday's session flat on the Athens Stock Exchange with fears of a prolonged war in Afghanistan discouraging market sentiment and deterring both short- and long-term investing activity in stocks.

The general index ended 0.10 percent higher at 2,262.29 points, reversing an initial decline with the help of institutional buying in bank shares 20 minutes from close after a report by Merrill Lynch upgraded Alpha Bank's shares to "neutral" from "downgrade".

Turnover, however, was a disappointing 14.5 billion drachmas or 42.6 million euros, the lowest in the last four years.

The IT solutions and Minerals sectors suffered the heaviest losses (1.30 percent and 0.87 percent respectively), while Construction and Holdings scored the biggest gains (0.92 percent and 0.51 percent respectively).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index rose 0.31 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index was unchanged and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 eased 0.20 percent.

BRoadly, decliners led advancers by 163 to 136 with another 58 issues unchanged.

[06] Indicative fuel prices: heating oil price plummets

The suggested retail fuel price for heating oil was practically halved on Monday, falling by 90.8 drachmas per litre (?0.27) as a lower special consumption tax voted on last week came into effect.

Prices for super and unleaded petrol also dropped by about 3.0 drachmas per litre, while diesel oil prices remained unchanged.

In the greater Athens area and Thessaloniki prefecture, indicative prices for super now stand at 229.2 drachmas per litre (?0.67); 215.5 (?0.63) for unleaded; 205.7 (?0.60) for diesel and 103.6 (?0.3) drachmas per litre for heating oil.

The government announces indicative prices as a guide to consumers and the market, although deviations in actual market prices sometimes vary from five to 15 drachmas per litre. (The fixed exchange rate for drachmas/euros is 340.750 drachmas per euro)

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