Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-11-16

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

CONTENTS

[01] National Bank, Alpha to release merger details on Tuesday

[02] CD-ROM 'Melina Mercouri' wins special award in Beijing

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

[04] Commemorative pin for 1,000 days before Athens Olympiad

[05] Weather Forecast: Overcast on Saturday

[06] Greek stocks end week sharply higher

[01] National Bank, Alpha to release merger details on Tuesday

National Bank of Greece and Alpha Bank, the country's largest credit institutions, are to announce details of their planned merger at a news conference on Tuesday.

For release are the legal and operational aspects of the move, the share-swap ratio, how the two institutions' subsidiaries will be merged, and the name of the new bank to emerge.

According to industry sources, the managements of the two blue chip banks are anxious to complete legal work on the merger as soon as possible in order to move briskly with operational fusion.

[02] CD-ROM 'Melina Mercouri' wins special award in Beijing

The CD-ROM "Melina Mercouri" won a special award at the multimedia Mobius international competition which was held in Beijing from November 12-14.

The CD-ROM, which has already been in circulation in the Greek market for the past 15 months, constitutes a production of the Melina Mercouri Foundation and was produced with the financing of the Culture Ministry.

The CD-ROM "Melina Mecouri" was acclaimed by the judging committee in Beijing for the quality of its production as well as for the complex personality of Mercouri.

Great interest was shown for its distribution in China and the United States. The English version of the CD-ROM will go into circulation by the end of the year.

The Mobius International Committee decided that the next international Mobius competition be held in Greece in 2003.

2002 is the 30th anniversary of Greek-Chinese diplomatic relations, within the framework of which the Greek Embassy in Beijing will organise a special week dedicated to Melina Mercouri.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

Indicative tourist buying rates until Monday

U.S. dollar 382.178

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 547.407

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 045.426

Swedish kroner 036.048

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 311.671

Swiss franc 230.361

Norwegian kroner 042.679

Cyprus pound 590.022

Canadian dollar 240.150

Australian dollar 200.099

[04] Commemorative pin for 1,000 days before Athens Olympiad

A thousand days remain until the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and the Organising Committee, in order to celebrate the event, has created 3,000 commemorative pins for collectors with the theme "1000 days before the Games."

The collection of Olympic Pins is an integral part of the Olympic Games and constitutes "The spectators' event", as it has become known, and a noble struggle linked to the course of preparation", according to an announcement by the Organising Committee.

Olympic Pins, as well as the other Olympic products, are available at the Olympic Store, the Athens Eleftherios Venizelos airport and at selected outlets all over the country.

[05] Weather Forecast: Overcast on Saturday

Cloud is forecast throughout the country on Saturday, possibly turning to light rain in the east, the north, the Cyclades islands and northern Crete. Winds east-northeasterly, moderate to very strong, turning gale force in the southern Aegean. In the north, temperatures will range from 3C to 13C; in the west from 7C to 20C; and in the rest of the country from 9C to 19C. Cloudy in Athens, with temperatures from 9C and 16C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 6C to 12C.

[06] Greek stocks end week sharply higher

Equity prices ended the last trading session of the week sharply higher boosted by strong buying interest in blue chip stocks, particularily banks and telecoms.

The general index ended 2.05 percent higher at 2,763.30 points, with turnover a moderate 64 billion drachmas, or 187.9 million euros. The general index ended the week with a net gain of 4.08 percent and is now 31.23 percent up from the low levels of September 21.

The Publications, Textiles and Banks sectors scored the biggest percentage gains (3.61 percent, 3.23 percent and 3.03 percent, respectively).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 2.33 percent higher, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index rose 1.45 percent and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index rose 2.05 percent.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 285 to 46 with another 32 issues unchanged.

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