Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-04-30

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

CONTENTS

[01] Alpha Finance-Bourse-Share Trade

[02] Secondary Bond Market-Close

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Wednesday

[04] Greek Economy-Conference-New York

[05] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

[06] Pope's visit - official programme

[07] Greece - Cyprus - Clerides - ANA exclusive

[08] ASE-close

[09] Papandreou - Tunisian FM - meeting

[01] Alpha Finance-Bourse-Share Trade

Alpha Finance, a financial services subsidiary of blue chip Alpha Bank, will cease trading on the Athens Stock Exchange on Wednesday following its absorption into the parent company.

Alpha Bank said in a statement on Monday that the merger had received final regulatory approval, allowing the cessation of its subsidiary's trade.

[02] Secondary Bond Market-Close

Bond prices in the domestic secondary market on Monday finished lower in heavy trade with players dumping their paper.

The Greek benchmark 10-year bond showed a yield of 5.54 from 5.48 percent a day earlier.

The yield spread over German bunds was 49 basis points from 50 basis points in the previous session.

Turnover through the central bank's electronic system totalled 1.45 billion euros (496 billion drachmas) from 1.2 billion euros (432 billion drachmas)in the trading day before.

Sell orders accounted for the bulk of turnover.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Wednesday

Buying rates until Wednesday

U.S. dollar 380.811

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 545.636

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 45.284

Swedish kroner 37.090

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 308.231

Swiss franc 219.980

Norwegian kroner 41.769

Cyprus pound 584.206

Canadian dollar 246.741

Australian dollar 193.421

[04] Greek Economy-Conference-New York

A conference is to be held in New York on May 7 on investing in Greece, including the Athens bourse and Olympic Games to be hosted by the capital in 2004.

The annual conference is organised by Capital Link, working with the Greek-UK Business Council.

Foreign Minister George Papandreou will open the conference. Among the speakers are the president of the Athens Olympics organising committee, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, and the chairman of the Athens Stock Exchange, Panayiotis Alexakis.

[05] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

Sunshine is forecast in most parts of the country on Tuesday, with cloud in the east and south. Winds north-northeasterly, moderate to very strong, turning gale force in the Aegean. Temperatures in the north will range from 10C to 26C; in the west from 14C to 29C; and in the rest of the country from 13C to 24C. Sunshine and scattered cloud in Athens, with temperatures between 15C and 23C. Same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 13C to 26C.

[06] Pope's visit - official programme

Pope John Paul II is due to arrive in Athens for an official visit on Friday, May 4, at the invitation of President of the Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos.

According to an announcement on Monday, the head of the Roman Catholic Church will be met at the airport by Foreign Minister George Papandreou. Immediately after his arrival, he will be meeting with the president, Prime Minister Costas Simitis, Parliament Speaker Apostolos Kaklamanis and main opposition New Democracy leader Costas Karamanlis at the presidential mansion.

During his stay, Pope John Paul will also be meeting with the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos, and will depart from Athens on Saturday morning.

[07] Greece - Cyprus - Clerides - ANA exclusive

NICOSIA (ANA) Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides, in an exclusive statement to the ANA on Monday, said that his upcoming visit to Athens would have a double significance, being both symbolic and practical in nature.

Clerides is due to leave for Athens on Wednesday accompanied by Foreign Minister Ioannis Cassoulides, Minister of State Pantelis Kouros and government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou and returns to Cyprus on Friday afternoon.

[08] ASE-close

A wave of buying orders for selected blue chip stocks, during the last 10 minutes of trading, pushed the general index higher on the Athens Stock Exchange on Monday, although the majority of stock shares recorded losses.

Turnover remained low, with investors unable to find new incentives in the Greek market.

Unibrain's share price soared 223.7 percent on the first day of trading on a New Stock Exchange (NEXA) for new technology companies.

It was NEXA's debut session since its creation in July 1999. The market was founded in an effort by market authorities to help Greek new technology companies to raise money from the capital market and to finance their expansion.

Omega Securities, NEXA's primary dealer, said a large part of Unibrain's turnover was attributed to heavy intra-day transactions.

Companies seeking listing in NEXA should have an equity capital of 200 million drachmas, to implement a share capital increase plan worth 250 million drachmas, to commit 80 percent of their basic shareholders and to announce a three-year expansion plan.

The general index ended 0.68 percent higher at 3,286.67 points, after failing to break the 3,300 level during the session. Turnover was a low 153.82 million euros, or 52.42 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 0.82 percent higher at 1,922.37 points, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index rose 0.10 percent to 379.15 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 326.35 points, off 0.69 percent.

[09] Papandreou - Tunisian FM - meeting

Foreign Minister George Papandreou had a meeting in Athens on Monday with his Tunisian counterpart Habib Ben Yahia, who is here to prepare for an upcoming visit to Greece by Tunisia's president.

Talks between the two men focused on bilateral relations between Greece and Tunisia, which they described as traditionally good, and developments in the surrounding region.

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