Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-09-29

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

CONTENTS

[01] Shipwreck-Death toll rises-Justice takes over-Overall lead

[02] Bird watching-European two-day events

[03] Sports-UEFA Cup-Second Round Draw-Greek Teams

[04] Weather Forecast-Saturday

[05] Foreign Exchange Rates-Monday

[06] Motor Oil Hellas-results

[07] Greece-Germany-business

[08] ASE-close

[01] Shipwreck-Death toll rises-Justice takes over-Overall lead

The death toll from the "Express Samina" ferry disaster off the Aegean island of Paros reached 74 on Friday, after nine more bodies were recovered near the shipwreck site on Friday, the merchant marine ministry said.

The nine bodies were recovered from the shipwreck site since 11:00 a.m. and were transported by a Coast Guard vessel to the port of Paros, an ANA correspondent at the scene of the tragedy reported.

Late on Friday the ministry announced that according to its latest information, Lois Tsamoro Bravo, 25 from Spain, Alexanian Arit, 20 from Russia and Skantera Akis from Albania were the foreign nationals on its list of those still missing, following the shipwreck.

On a more positive note, however, Australians Jonas Clayton, Ruth Jackman, Marsel van dor Schoot and Moana Weir were among those rescued, as they themselves informed the Australian Embassy in Athens that they were safe and sound.

[02] Bird watching-European two-day events

The Greek Ornithology Society (GOS) is organising events in 17 regions of the country in observance of the European-wide two-day ?Bird Watching? events.

In Athens, GOS is organisingbird watching events at the citys National Garden on Sunday, beginning from early morning to 1 p.m. Events will include environmental games, readings and bird watching.

[03] Sports-UEFA Cup-Second Round Draw-Greek Teams

The collated draw for the second round of the UEFA Cup took place in Gevena on Friday and all four Greek teams have qualified for this round of the soccer tournament.

The draw involving the Greek teams is as follows:

OFI Crete v Slavia Prague (Czech Republic)

Herfoelge (Denmark) v AEK Athens

Udinese (Italy) v PAOK Thessaloniki

Kaiserslautern (Germany) v Iraklis Thessaloniki

Matches to be played over two legs on October 26 and November 9.

[04] Weather Forecast-Saturday

Scattered cloud is forecast in many parts of the country on Saturday. Winds variable, moderate to strong. Temperatures in the north will range from 8C to 26C; on the rest of the mainland and in the Ionian from 11C to 28C; and in the Aegean from 16C to 25C. Mostly sunny in Athens with temperatures between 15C and 26C. Light cloud in Thessaloniki, with temperatures ranging from 11C to 25C.

[05] Foreign Exchange Rates-Monday

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

Mondays rates (buying)

Euro 336.605

U.S. dollar 382.476

German mark 172.104

French franc 051.315

Pound sterling 559.885

Irish punt 427.401

Belgian franc 008.344

Luxembourg franc 008.344

Dutch guilder 152.745

Italian lira (100) 017.384

Austrian schilling 024.462

Danish kroner 045.152

Swedish kroner 039.454

Finnish mark 056.613

Spanish peseta 002.023

Portuguese escudo 001.679

Japanese yen (100) 354.759

Swiss franc 220.596

Norwegian kroner 041.981

Cyprus pound 587.264

Canadian dollar 255.222

Australian dollar 206.658

[06] Motor Oil Hellas-results

Motor Oil Hellas, a Greek refinery in which Saudi Aramco has a 50 percent equity stake, plans an initial public offering by late November-early December this year to list its shares on the Athens Stock Exchange, a company statement said on Friday.

The company will float up to 25 percent of its equity capital and the new capital will be used to fund the company's investment programme aimed to boost its competitiveness.

Motor Oil Hellas reported pre-tax profits of 20 billion drachmas in the first six months of 2000 and expects its profits to exceed forecasts by the end of the year.

The company has spent more than 55 billion drachmas in high technology investments in the last 17 months. These included building of a CCR unit, a ben free unit and a FCC unit, expanding its refinery operations.

[07] Greece-Germany-business

Greek and German businesses discussed closer relations during a seminar organised by Greece's largest employers' union with the participation of a business delegation from Germany in Athens on Friday.

The chairman of the Federation of Greek Industries, Odysseas Kyriakopoulos, addressing the seminar urged the German delegation, led by the employers' union and the Federation of Metal and Electric Products' Manufacturers of Northern Rhine-Westfall, to invest in Greece.

The German ambassador to Greece, H. Kuhna, said that 150 German companies were operating in Greece, attracted by a healthy economic environment (reflected in a low inflation, rapid growth rates and low interest rates), the basis for attracting foreign investments.

Greek-German trade transactions have a great significance and were constantly expanding, officials said. Germany is the main buyer of Greek products and the country's most important economic partner in the European Union, followed by Italy and the UK.

Greek exports to Germany totalled 1.664 billion US dollars in 1999, while imports from Germany totalled 4.272 billion dollars.

German exports totalled 4.5 billion German marks in the first six months of 2000, up more than 30 percent compared with the same period last year, while Greek exports to Germany totalled 1.7 billion DMarks, up 6.2 percent, over the same period.

Electronics, cars and engines accounted for 65 percent of German exports (final products). Greek exports comprised of clothing, textiles and food.

German direct investments in Greece totalled 2.16 billion marks in 1998, 0.4 percent of the German direct investments abroad, ranking Greece ahead of Finland in the bottom of EU member-states receiving German investments.

Five Greek banks and two insurance groups currently operate in Germany, with Greek direct investments in Europe's largest economy totalling 164 million DMarks in the first three quarters of 1999.

[08] ASE-close

Demand for blue chip stocks, included in the MSCI world index, led equity prices to a higher close on the Athens Stock Exchange on Friday.

The general index ended at 4,178.96 points, up 0.87 percent, for a net gain of 2.15 percent in the week.

Turnover was an improved 104.31 billion drachmas for a daily average of 88.56 billion in the week, down from 124.91 billion the previous week.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 1.06 percent higher at 2,371.64 points, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index rose 0.49 percent to end at 535.54 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 596.36 points, off 0.62 percent.

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