Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-09-26

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

CONTENTS

[01] Bulgaria-Tsohatzopoulos-Visit

[02] Cosmote-IPO-Share Price

[03] Reppas-Yugoslavia-Election results

[04] Foreign Exchange Rates-Wednesday

[05] Weather Forecast-Wednesday

[06] Piraeus Bank-network expansion

[07] Greece-ASE-measures

[08] ASE-close

[09] Bond auction-results

[01] Bulgaria-Tsohatzopoulos-Visit

SOFIA (ANA - M. Borisov) - National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos, heading a delegation of senior armed forces officers, arrived in Bulgaria on Tuesday on a two-day visit during which he will be watching the first exercise of the multinational brigade created two years ago by seven countries in southeastern Europe.

The exercise, codenamed "Seven Stars", will be carried out near the town of Haskovo, southeastern Bulgaria, on Wednesday in the presence of Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov and defence ministers and staff chiefs from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Romania and Turkey. Military units from these countries will be participating in the exercise.

Tsohatzopoulos attended an official dinner given in his honour by his Bulgarian counterpart Boiko Noev in the town of Hisarya on Tuesday night.

[02] Cosmote-IPO-Share Price

Cosmote, the mobile phone arm of listed Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation, is to have a price range of 3,120-3,494 drachmas per share in an initial public offer (IPO) beginning on Wednesday.

The share price range applies to the sale of new stock in the IPO, which is to take place in Greece and the United Kingdom for entry into the two countries' stock exchanges.

The exact price will be determined through bookbuilding and announced after the IPO ends on October 2.

[03] Reppas-Yugoslavia-Election results

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas on Tuesday said he was not commenting on the results of the Yugoslav elections, saying that the final results were not yet known and calling for self-control.

He said that he would not comment until the final result was made public by the elections central monitoring committee, stressing that the elections were held under normal conditions ?and we should expect the results to be published in the same way.?

?We should be careful and what we wish for is that Yugoslavia exits this crisis aided by all of us,? he said, adding that what matters was the vote of the Yugoslav people and underlined that the political forces of the neighbouring country accepted that the elections were held in a normal and democratic way.

[04] Foreign Exchange Rates-Wednesday

Indicative rates released by the central bank for the next working day.

Wednesdays rates (buying)

Euro 336.586

U.S. dollar 383.636

German mark 172.093

French franc 051.312

Pound sterling 557.583

Irish punt 427.375

Belgian franc 008.344

Luxembourg franc 008.344

Dutch guilder 152.736

Italian lira (100) 017.383

Austrian schilling 024.461

Danish kroner 045.124

Swedish kroner 039.658

Finnish mark 056.609

Spanish peseta 002.023

Portuguese escudo 001.678

Japanese yen (100) 357.189

Swiss franc 221.211

Norwegian kroner 041.930

Cyprus pound 588.256

Canadian dollar 256.928

Australian dollar 209.848

[05] Weather Forecast-Wednesday

Scattered cloud is forecast throughout the country on Wednesday, turning showery in parts of the east, the Peloponnese, the Cyclades islands and Crete. Winds will be northerly, light to strong, with high winds forecast in the Aegean. Temperatures in the north will range from 10C to 21C; in the west from 14C to 27C; and in the rest of the country from 16C to 26C. Light cloud over Athens with temperatures between 17C to 24C. Same in Thessaloniki, possibly turning showery, with temperatures ranging from 15C to 19C.

[06] Piraeus Bank-network expansion

Piraeus Bank inaugurated four new branches during the first two days of the week raising its total network to 174 around the country.

The new branches are based in Thessaloniki, Kos island, Syros island and Mytilene island.

The bank plans to inaugurate a new branch in Knossos, Crete, on Thursday.

Piraeus Bank expects its network to total 190 by the end of the year, up from 154 at the end of 1999.

[07] Greece-ASE-measures

The Athens Stock Exchange's board on Tuesday approved a new package of measures aiming to rationalise and to boost transparency in listing procedures and to better protect investors.

Under the new measures, the listing system changes dramatically with the introduction of a new list of candidate companies, comprising of 11 categories and including a total of 286 companies that have filed listing applications with the Athens bourse.

The new measures also envisage bonding for a period of six months of all company owners' equity capital and tighter rules on listing procedures (book building, risk assessment and standardization of figures in application documents).

[08] ASE-close

Equity prices ended flat on Tuesday with the Greek market seemingly stabilising around the 4,000-4,200 levels following a period of wild fluctuations in the previous two weeks.

Traders said, however, that the market was again witnessing some liquidity problems with turnover remaining at levels below 100 billion drachmas in the last two sessions.

Shares in the industrials sector attracted selective demand while shares in the construction and the smaller capitalisation sectors came under strong pressure.

The general index ended at 4,153.54 points, up 0.05 percent, with turnover a low 89.99 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 0.61 percent lower at 2,352.48 points and the FTSE/ASE 40 index eased 0.23 percent to 537.11 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 615.86 points, off 1.53 percent.

[09] Bond auction-results

Greek bond yields fell sharply on Tuesday during the regular auction of state securities by the Public Debt Management Organisation.

The average weighed yield of a three-month treasury bill, worth 25 billion drachmas, fell to 6.55 percent from 8.10 percent in the previous auction of same bills. Bids submitted totalled 76.25 billion drachmas, three times more than the asked sum.

The average weighed yield of a six-month state bill, worth 25 billion drachmas, fell to 5.82 percent from 7.47 percent. Bids submitted totalled 79 billion drahcmas, three times more the asked sum.

The average weighed yield of a 12-month state bill, worth 40 billion drachmas, declined to 5.58 percent from 6.27 percent. Bids submitted totalled 98.1 billion, three times more than the asked sum.

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