Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-09-11

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

CONTENTS

[01] Carrefour-Marinopoulos announces 4-month price freeze

[02] Issue of sale receipts becomes mandatory for taxis, gas stations

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Friday

[04] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Friday

[05] ASE recovers to around 2,100 level on Thursday

[01] Carrefour-Marinopoulos announces 4-month price freeze

The Carrefour-Marinopoulos Group on Thursday announced that it would freeze most prices in its hypermarket and supermarket chain from September 15, 2003 to January 15, 2004.

Company executives told a news conference that the move aimed to protect the purchasing power of consumers and retain the group's position as the retail chain with the lowest prices.

The freeze does not apply to fruit, vegetables and fish, which are subject to price controls.

The group's managing director, Didier Fleury, said that the group would lose 5.0-10.0 million euros from the freeze.

Carrefour-Marinopoulos is the largest retail chain in Greece with a 20 percent market stake.

Consolidated sales in 2002 totalled 1.21 billion euros, and investments came to 114 million euros. The chain has 9,700 staff.

[02] Issue of sale receipts becomes mandatory for taxis, gas stations

The issue of sale receipts by taxi drivers and gas station owners will become mandatory, Deputy Finance Minister Apostolos Fotiadis told reporters on Thursday.

He said the measure would come into force this year for gas stations, where electronic cash registers would be installed at the pumps to record gasoline sales.

Taxi drivers will issue receipts from January 1, 2004, he said.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Friday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.130

Pound sterling 0.709

Danish kroner 7.488

Swedish kroner 9.156

Japanese yen 132.3

Swiss franc 1.565

Norwegian kroner 8.326

Cyprus pound 0.587

Canadian dollar 1.546

Australian dollar 1.716

[04] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Friday

Most parts of the country will see sunshine, with brief showers in the northeast and northwest. Light rain may fall in the west. Winds northerly, light to moderate. In the north, temperatures will range from 14C to 25C; and in the rest of the country from 16C to 29C. Temperatures in Athens between 19C and 29C; and in Thessaloniki from 16C to 25C.

[05] ASE recovers to around 2,100 level on Thursday

Greek stocks ended higher for the second consecutive session in the Athens Stock Exchange on Thursday as the market easily absorbed intra-session bouts of profit taking.

The general index ended 0.95 percent higher at 2,094.87 points, with turnover a moderate 164.3 million euros.

The IT Solution index was the only one to suffer losses (0.40 percent), while the Publication, Insurance and Holding sectors scored the biggest percentage gains of the day (6.87 percent, 3.97 percent and 3.82 percent, respectively).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks rose 0.80 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index jumped 2.21 percent and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index ended 1.73 percent higher.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 274 to 45 with another 48 issues unchanged.

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