Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-05-31

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

CONTENTS

[01] Foreign Exchange Rates - Friday

[02] Athens Bourse-Mature Market-Debut-Volatility Limit

[03] Weather Forecast-Friday

[01] Foreign Exchange Rates - Friday

Buying rates for Friday

U.S. dollar 398.631

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 565.917

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 45.338

Swedish kroner 37.043

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 334.692

Swiss franc 222.291

Norwegian kroner 42.625

Cyprus pound 586.065

Canadian dollar 257.131

Australian dollar 202.081

[02] Athens Bourse-Mature Market-Debut-Volatility Limit

The Athens bourse is to undergo a change of status from emerging to mature on Friday following its reclassification in the MSCI series of market indices.

The Athens Stock Exchange will enter the MSCI Developed Market Index Series on the basis of Thursday's market close. Its weighting is 0.42 percent on the MSCI-EAFE index, and 0.22 percent on the MSCI-World index.

The change coincides with a new bourse rule that widens the daily volatility limit for stocks to 18 percent from 12 percent, starting on Friday. For an individual stock to show an 18 percent fluctuation, it will first have to show unmet supply or demand for 10 minutes.

The shift to mature status will help the stock exchange in the longer term to attract more capital from institutional investors and fund managers abroad, with signs of an inflow already apparent, analysts said on Thursday.

According to brokers, the equivalent of around 500 million US dollars has entered the bourse in the recent past with a fresh surge seen on Thursday.

Under the bourse's new status, the amount of buying passive funds is likely to total 1.3 billion US dollars, and active investors will invest 5.7 billion US dollars if they take a neutral position, leading to a net inflow of 4.8 billion US dollars, one analyst said.

When Greece was classified as an emerging market, an estimated 2.2 billion US dollars tracked Greece through the MSCI EMF index.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter said in market report that it expected net inflows from passive funds (institutionals making placements on the basis of Morgan Stanley Capital International's index series) will total 290 billion drachmas.

According to UBS, inflows from passive funds will come to 1.3 billion US dollars.

In a more conservative estimate, Deutsche Bank sees net inflows in the same category totalling 410 million US dollars.

Finally, Goldman Sachs forecast net inflows from passive funds of 250.4 million euros, around 60 percent of which will be channelled into National Bank of Greece, Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation, Alpha Bank and Commercial Bank of Greece.

Finally, margin trading may be introduced at the Athens bourse on an unspecified date next week, market sources said.

[03] Weather Forecast-Friday

Sunshine is forecast throughout the country on Friday, possibly turning to isolated storms from evening on high ground in Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace. Winds west-southwesterly, light to moderate. In the north, temperatures will range from 16C to 34C; on the rest of the mainland from 18C to 36C; and in the islands from 20C to 33C. Sunny in Athens, with temperatures between 20C and 36C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 18C to 32C.

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