Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-11-09

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

CONTENTS

[01] Thessaloniki Film Festival to begin on Friday night

[02] Weather Forecast: Cloudy on Saturday

[03] Greek stocks end higher for eighth consecutive session

[01] Thessaloniki Film Festival to begin on Friday night

The 42nd Thessaloniki Film Festival will begin in the northern Greek city on Friday night at 20:30, with legendary US screen actress Faye Dunaway attending.

The festival will be officially inaugurated by Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos and will last 10 days, ending on Sunday next. During that time, there will be 353 screenings of 201 films participating in the competition, the New Horizons section and various tributes.

[02] Weather Forecast: Cloudy on Saturday

The weather will be cloudy throughout the country on Saturday, with showers in the northwest mainly in the morning. Early morning visibility will be limited. Winds south-southeasterly, strong to very strong, turning gale force in the west. In the north, temperatures will range from 8C to 22C; in the west from 12C to 23C; and in the rest of the country from 13C to 25C. Light cloud over Athens with temperatures from 14C and 24C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 11C to 21C.

[03] Greek stocks end higher for eighth consecutive session

Equity prices ended the week higher, extending their advance for the eighth consecutive session on Friday, although off their day's highs as some investors preferred to take early profits ahead of the weekend.

Market sentiment was boosted initially by talk over a takeover bid by EFG Eurobank to buy Commercial Bank, later officially denied by the bank. ASE authorities, however, said they would start an inquiry to see if any speculative moves were connected with recent merger talk in the market.

Traders also said that news of substantial fall in the inflation rate in October and a new round of interest rate cuts by commercial banks contributed in sustaining the market's rally.

The general index ended 0.76 percent higher at 2,654.83 points, after gaining as much as 1.5 percent early in the session. It ended the week 4.88 percent higher. Turnover was an improved 72.3 billion drachmas or 212.2 million euros.

The Investment and Insurance sectors scored the biggest percentage gains (up 2.59 percent and 2.07 percent, respectively), while the IT, Construction and the Parallel Market for smaller capitalisation stocks sectors suffered losses (0.75 percent and 0.32 percent, respectively).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 0.78 percent higher, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index rose 0.76 percent and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index increased by 0.25 percent.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 199 to 113 with another 49 issues unchanged.

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