Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-04-27

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

CONTENTS

[01] Earthquake-Aegion

[02] Easter-Exodus

[03] Greece-Germany-Reckers

[04] Greece-EU-Reckers

[05] Foreign Exchange Market-Close

[06] Albright-Greek-Turkish-FMs-meeting

[07] Secondary Bond Market-Close

[08] Alpha Bank-Results

[09] EFG Eurobank-Romania

[10] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

[11] Weather Forecast-Friday

[12] ASE-close

[01] Earthquake-Aegion

An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale was recorded just after 10 p.m. on Thursday, off the coast of Aegion, northern Peloponnese, 150 kilometres southwest of Athens, the Athens Observatory reported.

No injuries or damages were reported at press time.

The earthquake was felt on both sides of the Gulf of Corinth that is in the northern Peloponnese and mainland Greece.

The city of Aegion was again hit by a destructive earthquake in the summer of 1995, killing a number of people and causing serious damage to the citys infrastructure.

[02] Easter-Exodus

Greek urban dwellers began on Thursday their traditional Easter exodus in epic numbers this year, via trains, planes boats and cars.

Olympic Airways flights were full, despite an increase in seat capacity in light of the holidays, Greek Railway Organisation (OSE) tickets were exhausted even though there was an increase from 20 to 40 per cent in seating capacity for travel to and from the Peloponnese and Macedonia.

Even the least preferred intercity buses of KTEL ticket sales rose to such an unexpected high that extra buses were put into service and departed as soon as they were full.

The high drama of the weekenders, however, was once again reserved for travel to the islands via boats as port authorities issued an advisory requesting of passengers to avoid the port if they do not already have tickets as boats have been booked to capacity.

Last but not least, highway police have planned to facilitate travel on both highways leading out of Athens where traffic on Thursday was already above the average of years past during this time.

Thessaloniki residents, also, planned their escape for the Easter long weekend despite the rainy weather and the unseasonably low temperatures, heading mostly for the Halkidiki peninsula vacation spots.

Many residents of the largest urban centres in northern Greece, planned their holiday in Istanbul, taking advantage of the thaw in Greek-Turkish relations, to visit the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate.

Other destinations with record ticket sales were Italy, England and the islands of the Aegean and Ionian Seas.

[03] Greece-Germany-Reckers

BERLIN (ANA-P.Stangos) - A statement by Hans Reckers, a Bundesbank council member, that Greek euro-zone entry should be delayed by a year has no practical import, an official of the German finance ministry told the Athens News Agency on Thursday.

The statement, made on Wednesday, would have no impact on the process of deciding whether or not Greece qualified for entry into the 11-member euro club, the official said.

[04] Greece-EU-Reckers

BRUSSELS (ANA-G.Daratos) - The European Union's executive Commission on Thursday downplayed statements a day earlier by Hans Reckers, a Bundesbank council member, that Greek euro-zone entry should be delayed by a year.

"We hear different commentators in different quarters express their opinions. At this stage we neither wish nor have anything to comment on," the Commission's press spokesperson said in reply to a reporter's question.

[05] Foreign Exchange Market-Close

The drachma on Thursday fell against the euro during trade and dropped against the US dollar at the fix in the domestic foreign exchange market.

The Bank of Greece intervened to nudge up the national currency, selling around 140 million euros after selling 450 million euros in the previous session.

[06] Albright-Greek-Turkish-FMs-meeting

WASHINGTON (ANA) U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin announced on Thursday that U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will meet with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and his Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem in New York next week.

?She is scheduled to travel to New York for that dialogue," Rubin said.

Rubin did not provide any details on the meeting, noting that he will be leaving the post of State Department spokesman.

[07] Secondary Bond Market-Close

Bond prices in the domestic secondary market rose in moderate buy-oriented trade on Friday.

The Greek benchmark 10-year bond showed a yield of 6.01 percent from 6.15 percent a day earlier and 6.12 percent on Tuesday.

[08] Alpha Bank-Results

Alpha Bank, the country's second largest commercial bank, on Thursday reported first quarter net profits of 29 billion drachmas, down from 58.7 billion drachmas in the same period of 1999.

The decline was due to exceptionally lucrative financial transactions conducted in the first quarter of last year due to market conditions at the time, the bank said in a statement.

[09] EFG Eurobank-Romania

EFG Eurobank said on Thursday it had agreed to buy a stake in Banc Post SA of Romania, one of the largest commercial banks in the Balkan country.

[10] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

Following are indicative foreign exchange rates for commercial banks released by the central bank for the next working day.

Friday's rates (buying)

Euro 333.411

U.S. dollar 362.477

German mark 170.470

[11] Weather Forecast-Friday

The day will start cloudy throughout the country on Good Friday, turning to rain or storms in many areas. Winds variable, light to moderate.

[12] ASE-close

Equity prices ended higher on Thursday reversing a three-day decline which pushed the market 5.64 percent lower on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Dealers said trading conditions were subdued ahead of a four-day Easter holiday in the market and described the change of direction to technical buying. Turnover fell to 75 billion drachmas to its lowest levels in the last 12 months.

The general index ended at 4,249.45 points, up 2.46 percent. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 2.04 percent higher at 2,405.91 points and the FTSE/ASE 40 index 3.38 percent up at 563.06 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 715.37 points, up 5.59 percent.

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