Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-01-12

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

CONTENTS

[01] Telestet-Customer Base-Annual Data

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates-Monday

[03] Weather Forecast-Saturday

[04] Greece-research institutes

[05] Neorion Shipyards-share buyback

[06] TEB-Kambas-equity stake

[07] ASE-close

[08] PM - DU bombs - Parliament

[09] Athens - Minor - Earthquake

[01] Telestet-Customer Base-Annual Data

Telestet, one of the country's three mobile phone operators, posted a 39.1 percent rise in its customer base in 2000 to 1,645,392, it said on Friday.

The number of customers using pre-paid services in 2000 was 1,128,014, representing 68.6 percent of Telestet's customer base, the company said in a statement.

Contract-based customers totalled 517,378, or 31.4 percent of the customer base, the statement added.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates-Monday

Monday's buying rates

U.S. dollar 354.136

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 527.501

Irish punt 429.202

Belgian franc 008.379

Luxembourg franc 008.379

Dutch guilder 153.389

Italian lira (100) 017.457

Austrian schilling 024.565

Danish kroner 045.271

Swedish kroner 038.164

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 300.856

Swiss franc 219.357

Norwegian kroner 041.298

Cyprus pound 585.632

Canadian dollar 237.307

Australian dollar 198.804

[03] Weather Forecast-Saturday

Scattered cloud is forecast throughout the country on Saturday, turning to rain in the west and north and snow on high ground in the north. The adverse weather will spread to the rest of the mainland overnight and the northern Aegean. Winds variable, light to very strong. In the north, temperatures will range from 0C to 11C; on the rest of the mainland and the Ionian from 2C to 16C; and in the Aegean islands from 2C to 16C. Partly cloudy over Athens probably turning to rain during the night. Temperatures between 6C and 16C. Rain from afternoon in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 2C to 10C.

[04] Greece-research institutes

Development Minister Nikos Christodoulakis on Friday urged the a restructuring of research centres and institutes operating under the auspices of the General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GGET).

Addressing a seminar on research centres' operation in Athens, Christodoulakis said research centres and institutes must grow and expand activities through mergers, alliance and synergies to face international competition.

A report on the evaluation of research centres in Greece showed a breaking into pieces and multiple overlapping in their activities.

Christodoulakis noted the need to link research reports to an ecomomic and social reality and said that Europe lagged significantly behind the US in this procedure, a development with negative results in economic growth.

Christodoulakis said the private sector, and businesses in particular, were reluctant to spend capital in research and stressed that public spending in research were not enough.

Sixteeen important research agencies are currently operating under the auspices of GGET. Among them are the Athens Observatory, the National Research Institute, the National Physical Sciences Research Centre "Democritos", the National Marine Research Centre and others.

[05] Neorion Shipyards-share buyback

Neorion Shipyards, a listed shipyards company based in the island of Syros in the Cyclades, announced a share buyback programme on Friday.

The announcement was based on a decision by a general shareholders' meeting in December.

The buyback programme will be made in the period from January 23 to August 31, 2001. Neorion Shipyards wants to buy up to 300,000 common nominal shares at a maximum price of 7,500 drachmas, or 22.01 euros per share.

[06] TEB-Kambas-equity stake

TEB SA, a listed construction company, on Friday announced it would buy 300,000 shares, or 1.43 percent stake, in A.Kambas in the next three months.

In a letter to the Athens Stock Exchange, TEB said the transaction would be made through Alpha Securities, Telesis Securities, Egnatia Securities and National Securities.

[07] ASE-close

Equity prices ended the last trading session of the week flat on the Athens Stock Exchange with the market easily absorbing three waves of early profit taking following Thursday's spectacular rebound.

Traders said the market reacted nervoursly to conflicting talk over a report on the Greek economy by Morgan Stanley, which finally proved to be positive.

The general index showed wide fluctuations during the session to end narrowly higher with the help of firmer blue chip stocks.

The index ended 0.07 percent higher at 3,314.11 points, off the day's highs of 3,455.96 points. Analysts said the market would find resistance at the 3,420-point level in the short-term.

Turnover was an improved 276.822 million euros, or 94.327 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 0.58 percent higher at 1,935.76, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index eased 2.70 percent to 357.79 points.

The parallel market for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 4.68 percent lower at 279.31 points.

[08] PM - DU bombs - Parliament

Prime Minister Costas Simitis reiterated that Greece would not withdraw its troops from the Kosovo peace-keeping mission on Friday, and repeated that it was in the country's best interests to maintain a military presence in the area.

In response to other questions, meanwhile, Deputy Defence Minister Dimitris Apostolakis told Parliament that the government had been "officially" informed of the dangers of DU weapons in December 1999.

Responding to questions by parliamentary deputies regarding the consequences of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia, following the recent revelations in the press linking depleted uranium (DU) missiles with so-called "Balkans Syndrome", Simitis said the government had noted the worrying facts but would not bend to all pressures, whether these arose through true convictions, were politically motivated or were a public relations exercise.

"We cannot act on the basis of claims, rumours and political crescendos, but on the basis of the evidence of advisors of the organised state, such as the Greek Atomic Energy Commission."

He also denied that there were disagreements within the government over whether troops should be sent to the area.

[09] Athens - Minor - Earthquake

An earthquake measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale was recorded in the greater Athens area at around 2:12 p.m. local time, the Athens observatory stated.

The quake reportedly had an epicentre near Mount Parnitha, roughly the same area that generated a devastating trembler in early September 1999.

Although characterised as mild to moderate, the quake was nevertheless felt by residents throughout the Greek capital.

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