Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-01-04

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast: Snow and rain on Saturday

[02] Transport minister briefs premier on Olympic Airways privatization

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

[04] Greek stocks end flat in very thin trade

[01] Weather Forecast: Snow and rain on Saturday

Snowy throughout the country on Saturday, lighter in the northwest. Winds northerly, northeasterly, of gale force. In the north, temperatures will range from -20C to -4C; on the rest of the mainland from -10C to 2C; and in the islands from -2C to 5C. Rain and snow in Athens with temperatures between -2C to 2C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from -9C to -3C.

[02] Transport minister briefs premier on Olympic Airways privatization

Prime Minister Costas Simitis on Friday received Transportation and Communication Minister Christos Verelis and discussed developments in the telecommunications sector, the course of the privatization of Greece's national air carrier Olympic Airways and the upgrade of city public transportation systems.

Specifically, Verelis briefed the premier on the way the landscape in telecommunications is shaping with the advent of competition to the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE).

They also talked about the 300 per cent increase in Internet usage in Greece, during 2001 in comparison to 2000, as the telecommunication market began to be deregulated, thus at this point 12 per cent of Greeks have access to the World Wide Web.

The premier also asked to be briefed on the course of the negotiations with the Australian IAS company for the privatization of Olympic Airways, and stated that in the event that they will progress normally and IAS will pay the 120 million euros for the company, that money will be held in a special account to fund the new Olympic Airways as it will be formulated after the break up of the current system.

They also talked ways to improve the public transport system of Athens.

Following his meeting with the premier, Verelis also made statements about the problems of OA's flights caused by the weather, saying that all problems were resolved and since this afternoon all flights were conducted normally.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

Euro foreign exchange rates for tourists - Indicative buy rates

(Amount of currency per 1 euro)

U.S. dollar 0.9026

Pound sterling 0.6266

Danish kroner 7.5

Swedish kroner 9.3092

Japanese yen 118.12

Swiss franc 1.4907

Norwegian kroner 8.0504

Cyprus pound 0.5802

Canadian dollar 1.4419

Australian dollar 1.741

[04] Greek stocks end flat in very thin trade

Equity prices ended the first week of the new year flat in very thin trading conditions as investors remained sidelined awaiting fresh incentives and directions.

The general index ended 0.40 percent higher at 2,646.38 points, with turnover a disappointing Dr 27.8 billion, or 81.6 million euros.

Traders said buying interest focused on medium-sized capitalisation stocks.

The Publications, Construction and Metals sectors scored the biggest percentage gains (1.81 percent, 1.30 percent, 0.78 percent, respectively), while the Retail, IT Solutions and Insurance sectors suffered the heaviest losses (1.06 percent, 0.47 percent and 0.24 percent, respectively).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 0.4.0 percent higher, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index rose 0.67 percent and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index ended 0.35 percent higher.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 178 to 128 with another 48 issues unchanged.

The general index ended the shortened week with a net gain of 2.09 percent.

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