Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-01-22

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

CONTENTS

[01] Foreign Exchange Rates-Tuesday

[02] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

[03] Keranis-new chairman

[04] Greece-stock market

[05] ECB-foreign exchange

[06] Pouliadis-FTSE-index

[07] Panafon-Metro-fine

[08] Greece-Balkans-aid

[09] ASE-close

[01] Foreign Exchange Rates-Tuesday

Tuesday's buying rates

U.S. dollar 363.854

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 528.991

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 045.272

Swedish kroner 037.842

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 312.185

Swiss franc 220.350

Norwegian kroner 041.167

Cyprus pound 584.888

Canadian dollar 241.051

Australian dollar 201.008

[02] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

Cloud is forecast throughout the country on Tuesday, turning to rain chiefly in the west with snow on high ground. Winds variable, light to moderate. In the north, temperatures will range from -1C to 10C; on the rest of the mainland and the Ionian from 3C to 15C; and in the Aegean islands from 6C to 14C. Scattered cloud in Athens with temperatures between 5C and 13C. Same in Thessaloniki, with rain also likely. Temperatures from 2C to 10C.

[03] Keranis-new chairman

Keranis Group on Monday announced it has elected Arthur Frey as its new chairman and chief executive, to replace Konstantis Rokofyllos following the latter's resignation last week.

Mr. Frey is among others an expert on real estate issues.

Rokofyllos will remain with Keranis Group as a special advisor.

The group's board decided to continue its organisational restructuring to ensure its future profitability.

[04] Greece-stock market

"The Athens Stock Exchange is moving in the opposite direction to the economy, which will soon achieve growth rates of up to 5.0 percent, and this will stop sooner, or later," Finance Deputy Minister George Drys said on Monday, addressing an event organised by Greece's Capital Markets' Committee (CMC).

CMC's president Stavros Thomadakis and ASE chairman Panagiotis Alexakis, addressing the event said the two bodies were cooperating closely to lead the Greek bourse into the league of the world's mature markets, following the steps of other big European markets.

An ASE announcement on Monday dismissed recent talk that the ASE board and securities firms were leading to a clash, talk that undermined sentiment in recent sessions.

The Athens Stock Exchange also announced plans to end the use of trading floor in the market and to adopt fully electronic trade.

[05] ECB-foreign exchange

The European Central Bank set its reference rates on the euro/dollar rate at 92.90 cents on Monday, from 94 cents in Friday, pushing the drachma/dollar rate at 366.79 drachmas.

The euro currency's rate against the yen was set at 108.28 yen (3.14 drachmas), the euro/sterling at 0.6390 (533.25 drachmas), the euro/Swiss franc at 1,5340 francs (222.13 drachmas) and the euro/Cyprus pound at 0.5579 (589.63 drachmas).

[06] Pouliadis-FTSE-index

Pouliadis Group on Monday announced it has entered the FTSE Euromid Index, for rapidly growing medium-size enterprises in Europe, from December 18, 2000.

A company statement said this move would give a significant boost to its stock share because of the authority of the FTSE group in international markets.

FTSE is a member of FT International, a company founded in 1995 and equally owned by Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange.

Pouliadis hopes the group's subsidiaries (Despec Hellars, PC Systems, Q&R) would follow its path and win international recognition.

[07] Panafon-Metro-fine

Greece's Communications and Transport Ministry on Monday imposed a 90 million drachmas fine on Panafon, a listed mobile operator, for illegally installing 45 communications antennas on the Athens Metro stations.

[08] Greece-Balkans-aid

Greece's five-year Balkan restructuring plan envisages spending totalling 180 billion drachmas, National Economy Deputy Minister Yiannis Zaphiropoulos said on Monday.

Presenting the Greek government's plan, Zaphiropoulos said the money would be spent to support social infrastructure, financial infrastructure and services and production.

The Greek plan envisages spending of 17 billion drachmas on aid in Albania, 18.5 billion drs in Bulgaria, 25.5 billion in FYROM, 24 billion drachmas in Romania, 70 billion in Yugoslavia (excluding Kosovo) and 25 billion drachmas in Kosovo.

Zaphiropoulos also announced a plan to raise Greece's economic and trade affairs offices abroad from 59 to 81. The plan envisages opening of new offices in Havana, St Petersburg, Ankara, Alma-Ata, Amman, Bombay, Wellington, Jerusalem, Islamabad, Caracas, Lagos, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Mexico City, Bangkok, Bratislava, Nairobi, Oslo, Ottawa, Rabat, Riga, Sanghai, Santiago, Sarajevo, Singapore, Izmir, Taskend, Jakarta and Hong-Kong.

[09] ASE-close

Equity prices plunged to their lowest levels since February 22, 1999, on the Athens Stock Exchange on Monday, hit by lack of buying interest and a combination of negative factors in the economy and the market.

Market analysts said the market would test the 3,050-point support level on Tuesday, a strong support level for the general index.

The index ended 2.26 percent lower at 3,081.85 points, off the day's lows of 3,081.85 points, with turnover a low 101.97 million euros, or 34.746 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 2.06 percent lower at 1,818.61 points, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index dropped 3.35 percent to 313.09 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 240.76 points, off 4.26 percent.

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