Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-09-12

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

CONTENTS

[01] Athens bourse building evacuated due to bomb scare; stocks tumble

[02] Athens Stock Exchange to open at noon due to int'l turmoil after

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Wednesday

[04] Weather Forecast: Sunny on Wednesday

[01] Athens bourse building evacuated due to bomb scare; stocks tumble

The Athens Stock Exchange on Sophocleous Street was evacuated at 1:10 p.m. on Wednesday, following a phone call to say that a bomb had been set in the building.

Transactions, which are conducted by traders from brokerage offices over the phone since earlier this year, continued normally while the building was searched.

The general index continued to plunge to ever-lower levels, down 8.6 per cent at 2,336.03 points at 1:10 p.m., while turnover was 95 million euros.

All individual sector indices were tumbling, with the heaviest losses for infotech solutions, down 11.71 per cent, and publishing, down 11.7 per cent.

Of the stocks moved, none were up, 349 were down and two were unchanged.

[02] Athens Stock Exchange to open at noon due to int'l turmoil after attacks in US

The board of directors of the Athens Stock Exchange, at an emergency session Wednesday morning, decided that the day's trading session would open at noon and close at 2:30 p.m., due to the international turmoil following terrorist attacks in the United States on Tuesday.

The board further decided to curtail the volatility limit to plus-minus 6 percent for the day's session from the normal plus-minus 18 percent.

The same arrangements will also aply to trading on the Athens bourse's Derivatives Market.

In the event that trading fell to the lower volatility limit of 6 percent, the session would be immediately suspended.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Wednesday

Indicative tourist buying rates

U.S. dollar 377.102

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 549.100

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 45.424

Swedish kroner 35.591

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 309.266

Swiss franc 223.179

Norwegian kroner 042.534

Cyprus pound 589.716

Canadian dollar 241.718

Australian dollar 193.674

[04] Weather Forecast: Sunny on Wednesday

Sunny weather is forecast in most parts of the country on Wednesday, with Thrace and the eastern Aegean islands likely to see showers or short-lived storms. Winds northwesterly, moderate, turning strong at sea. In the north, temperatures will range from 14C to 28C; in the west from 17C to 30C; and in the rest of the country from 18C to 31C. Sunshine in Athens, with temperatures between 20C and 30C. Same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 18C to 28C.

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