Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-09-04

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

CONTENTS

[01] Foreign Exchange Rates - Wednesday

[02] Economic indicators to show steady improvement until 2004

[03] Weather Forecast: Cloud on Wednesday

[04] Greek stocks remain under pressure for fifth session

[01] Foreign Exchange Rates - Wednesday

Indicative tourist buying rates

U.S. dollar 376.852

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 545.461

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 45.409

Swedish kroner 35.388

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 315.626

Swiss franc 223.106

Norwegian kroner 042.449

Cyprus pound 589.849

Canadian dollar 243.201

Australian dollar 196.874

[02] Economic indicators to show steady improvement until 2004

The country's economic indicators will show steady progress until 2004 with inflation falling below 3.0 percent in 2001 to a targeted 2.9 percent and maintaining the decline, national economy ministry sources said on Tuesday.

In 2002-2004, investments are expected to rise by 10.4 percent annually and growth by 4.8 percent on an annualised basis from 4.6 percent this year. Inflation is seen dropping to 2.7 percent in the three-year period, the sources said.

The progess of indicators represents the anchor for a government package of social measures, they added.

[03] Weather Forecast: Cloud on Wednesday

Light cloud is forecast in all parts of the country on Wednesday, turning overcast in the west with rain and storms mainly in the northwest, spreading to the rest of the mainland and northern Aegean overnight. Winds west-southwesterly, light to moderate, turning strong later in the day. In the north, temperatures will range from 15C to 30C; on the rest of the mainland from 18C to 33C; and in the islands from 22C to 31C. The day will start sunny in Athens, turning to cloud and possibly rain or a storm during the night. Temperatures between 22C and 33C. Cloud in Thessaloniki turning to showers or storms from evening, with temperatures from 17C to 30C.

[04] Greek stocks remain under pressure for fifth session

Equity prices ended lower on Tuesday, extending their losing-streak for the fifth consecutive session on the Athens Stock Exchange, hit by lack of buying activity.

Blue chips remained under pressure, with National Bank losing 2.13 percent, while telecom shares resisted pressures to end slightly higher. Coca Cola HBC (+2.49%) led blue chip gainers.

Traders said the Greek market followed the ups-and-downs of other European bourses before and after the news of Hewlett-Packard's takeover of Compaq in a deal worth 27 billion US dollars.

The general index ended 0.56 percent lower at 2,717.88 points, slightly off the day's lows of 2,709.95 points, with turnover a low 107.91 million euros, or 36.77 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended at 1,526.36 points, off 0.65 percent, the FTSE/ASE 40 index dropped 1.43 percent to 297.21 points, and the FTSE/ASE SMALLCAP 80 ended at 883.76 points, down 0.70 percent.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 266.40 points, off 1.10 percent.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 229 to 91 with another 42 issues unchanged.

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