Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-01-05

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

CONTENTS

[01] Labour minister's son - Funeral - Athens

[02] ASE-weekly report

[03] Greece-bond market

[04] Greece-investment funds-report

[05] ASE-close

[01] Labour minister's son - Funeral - Athens

The slain son of Greek Labour Minister Tassos Yiannitsis, Constantine, was buried in Athens on Friday during a private funeral service, six days after the 29-year post graduate student was stabbed to death during a mugging southwest of Mexico City.

As per the familys request, television or photo crews were absent at the funeral, held at the Greek capitals First Cemetery.

Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos officiated at the service, attended by Greek Premier Costas Simitis and his Cabinet.

Constantine Yiannitsis, a postgraduate student at MIT, had traveled to Mexico with friends just prior to the New Year for a holiday.

[02] ASE-weekly report

Greek equities extended last year's heavy losses during the first three sessions of 2001 disappointing all those hoping for a recovery of the Athens Stock Exchange due to the switch to the euro currency.

Traders said foreign institutional investors continued liquidating positions in emerging markets hitting blue chip stocks in the banks and telecommunications sectors.

The general index ended the week with a net loss of 4.90 percent, with the FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks losing 5.15 percent and the FTSE/ASE 40 index falling 4.57 percent.

The short-week's turnover totalled 307.1 million euros, to a daily average of 102.4 million euros.

[03] Greece-bond market

Turnover in the Greek bond market more than double during the first trading week of 2001 with the daily turnover exceeding one billion euros (or more than 500 billion drachmas), the Bank of Greece said on Friday.

Central bank's figures showed that during the first three sessions of Greece's electronic secondary market, daily turnover soared to an average 1l.58 billion euros, or 538.95 billion drachmas, from 500.26 million euros or 170.463 billion drachmas in December.

Bond prices, also, soared by 0.27 to 0.304 points throughtout the curve and in particular in long-term bonds, pushing the benchmark 10-year bond at 105.13 points on Friday, up from 103.85 points in December 29, 200.

The Greek/Bund spread fell to 54 basis points from 62 basis points last Friday.

The finance ministry announced it would auction a bond issue, worth 1.4 billion euros (around 500 billion drachmas) paying an annual coupon of 6.0 percent, next Tuesday, January 9. The issue is the largest ever auctioned in Greece.

Euro interest rates fell further in the domestic interbank market, with the overnight rate set at 4.78 percent from 4.82 percent on Thursday, the one month rate at 4.78 from 4.80 percent and the 12-month rate at 4.45 from 4.50 percent.

[04] Greece-investment funds-report

Greece's 17 closed-end investment funds' net asset value fell to 965 billion drachmas at the end of December 2000, from 1.011 trillion on December 15 and 1.440 trillion on January 1, 2000, a report by the country's Union of Institutional Investors said on Friday.

The investment fund sector's net asset value fall last year ranged from 20.6 percent to 92 percent. Ten investment firms were traded at a discount between 4.1 and 24.2 percent, while the remaining seven were traded at a premium.

The investment sector index fell 4.24 in the period 15-29 December for an annual decline of 52.7 percent, compared with a 38.8 percent fall of the general index over the year.

[05] ASE-close

Equity prices ended the last trading session of the week sharply lower on the Athens Stock Exchange hit by strong selling by foreign institutional investors.

Traders said foreign investment funds gave open selling orders for Greek blue chip stocks, like National Bank, Hellenic Telecoms and Panafon, a trend that radidly expanded to all other sectors in the market.

The general index ended 2.86 percent lower at 3,217.96 points, off the day's lows of 3,198.26 points, with turnover a low 129.47 million euros, or 44.118 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 2.75 percent down at 1,850.53 points, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index eased 2.11 percent tp 377.35 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 4.05 percent to 290.85 points.

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