Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-10-10

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

CONTENTS

[01] Ecumenical Patriarch-Romania-Visit

[02] Greece-government-budget 2001

[03] ASE-close

[01] Ecumenical Patriarch-Romania-Visit

BUCHAREST (ANA - A. Kourkoulas) - Romanian Prime MinisterMugur Isarescu and his adviser on religious affairs received here on Tuesday Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos.

Addressing Vartholomeos at a service at Bucharest's cathedral, Patriarch Theoktistos of Romania underlined the role the Ecumenical Patriarchate plays in the affairs of the Orthodox churches all over the world and expressed his pleasure that Vartholomeos frequently visited Romania.

Patriarch Vartholomeos will be honoured on Wednesday by Romania's Academy of Sciences and awarded the title of honorary doctor.

Vartholomeos, who will also visit other Romanian cities, will return to Istanbul on Saturday.

[02] Greece-government-budget 2001

Prime Minister Costas Simitis gave the "green light" on Tuesday for the tabling of a tax bill to parliament next week, during a meeting with the government's economic team headed by National Economy and Finance Minister Yiannos Papantoniou.

The new tax legislation envisages tax cuts totaling 400 billion drachmas over the next two years through a gradual reduction of the tax scale ceiling from 45 percent to 40 percent and from 40 percent to 35 percent for taxpayers and companies.

It also includes a price-adjustment of the tax scale every two years, raising the sum for tax-free incomes, and abolishing a special duty on banking services, as well as taxes collected via the banking system for state agencies and pension funds.

[03] ASE-close

Equity prices continued moving lower on Tuesday hit by investors' reluctance to open new positions in the market and by draining liquidity on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Traders, however, were satisfied because the market found support at the 3,900 level. Analysts said the market's current levels were in the middle of its recent rally which pushed the general index from 3,400 to 4,400 points.

They said that draining liquidity in the market posed risks for a total of 70 listed companies planning to raise capital from the market (around one trillion drachmas) by the end of the year.

The general index ended 0.85 percent lower at 3,923.17 points, with turnover a low 58.89 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended at 2,223.77 points, off 0.75 percent, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index fell 1.18 percent to 483.78 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 3.33 percent lower at 518.70 points.

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