Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-07-13

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

CONTENTS

[01] Foreign Exchange Rates-Monday

[02] Weather Forecast: Sunshine on Saturday

[03] Greek stocks end week with heavy losses

[04] Turkish freighter - 70 Migrants - Karpathos

[01] Foreign Exchange Rates-Monday

Indicative buying rates until Monday afternoon

U.S. dollar 395.852

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 554.958

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 45.421

Swedish kroner 36.614

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 318.517

Swiss franc 223.589

Norwegian kroner 042.483

Cyprus pound 588.636

Canadian dollar 258.163

Australian dollar 200.949

[02] Weather Forecast: Sunshine on Saturday

Sunny weather is forecast throughout the country on Saturday, with scattered cloud on the northern mainland from late afternoon that may turn into isolated storms in Epirus and western Macedonia. Winds variable, light to strong, turning very strong in parts of the Aegean. On the mainland, temperatures will range from 20C to 36C; in the Ionian from 22C to 34C; and in the Aegean islands from 24C to 32C. Sunshine in Athens with temperatures between 24C and 35C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 23C to 34C.

[03] Greek stocks end week with heavy losses

Equity prices ended the last trading session of the week with heavy losses on the Athens Stock Exchange pushing the general index near the 2,400 level.

Traders said market sentiment remained gloomy following Merrill Lynch's report on the profitability of the country's banking sector.

Shares in the retailing, construction, wholesale and bank sectors were particularily hit.

The general index dropped 3.32 percent to end at 2,422.70 points, off the day's lows of 2,413.47 points, with turnover a low 115.37 million euros, or 39.31 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended at 1,360.39 points, off 3.67 percent, the FTSE/ASE 40 index dropped 3.60 percent to 268.50 points, and the FTSE/ASE SMALLCAP 80 index ended at 766.65 points, down 3.86 percent.

Sector indices ended as follows:

Banks: 4,721.92 -4.32%

Telecoms: 1,018.18 -1.50%

Insurance: 1,617.63 -0.60%

Investment: 735.68 -0.58%

Construction: 1,025.57 -4.97%

Industrials: 1,392.75 -3.07%

Holding: 2,664.94 -4.21%

Base metals: 811.97 -2.52%

Minerals: 888.14 -2.14%

Publishing: 503.14 -5.84%

Textiles: 756.50 -4.25%

Retailing: 830.72 -5.21%

IT: 666.06 -3.35%

IT solutions: 558.77 -3.87%

Wholesale: 607.62 -4.33%

Food & Beverage: 717.10 -2.06%

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 237.60 points, off 2.52 percent.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 328 to 21 with another 11 issues unchanged.

Xifias, Korfil, Minerva, Iktinos, Forthnet, Barba Stathis, Alpha Investments, Klaoudatos, Boutaris and Albio Holdings scored the biggest percentage gains, while Active Investment, Karelia, Athenian Holdings, Imaco, ETEBAbank, Teletypos, Maxim, Efklides and Eskimo suffered the heaviest losses.

Alpha Bank, National Bank, Hellenic Telecoms, Interamerican and Commercial Bank were the most heavily traded stocks.

Leading shares' closing prices (in euros):

Aluminium of Greece: 30.12

Alpha Bank: 20.92

Viohalco: 9.08

Lambrakis Press: 5.14

Coca Cola HBC: 12.98

Hellenic Petroleum: 5.64

Hel. Technodomiki: 6.02

Commercial Bank: 35.08

Attica Enterprises: 6.64

National Bank: 27.68

Athens Water: 6.24

EFG Eurobank: 13.42

Interamerican: 19.98

Intracom: 13.10

Duty Free Shops: 12.10

Maillis: 6.48

Olympic Technical: 2.21

Hellenic Telecoms: 15.16

Panafon: 5.50

Papastratos: 12.34

Piraeus Bank: 10.98

Titan Cement: 34.02

Folli-Follie: 21.40

[04] Turkish freighter - 70 Migrants - Karpathos

A Turkish-flagged freighter loaded with Third World migrants was towed to the southeastern Aegean island of Karpathos on Friday after rough seas forced the vessel dangerously off course.

Authorities recorded what later turned out to be 70 would-be immigrants Arabs, Turks, Moroccans, Pakistanis and Kurds on board the vessel, which was reportedly destined for Italy. The migrants said the freighter, identified as the ?Angel?, departed from the Asia Minor port of Bodrum ancient Halicarnassus three days ago.

According to reports, two women and two children were transported to the islands health clinic suffering from unspecified ailments.

Additionally, the migrants told the coast guard that they each paid US$3,000 for transport.

Athens has initiated procedures through diplomatic channels to return the illegals to Turkey, from where they entered Greek territory, reports state.

No arrests were announced at press time, while an investigation is underway.

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