Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-09-12

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

CONTENTS

[01] Papandreou-Albright-Cyprus

[02] Soccer-UEFA Cup-AEK

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates-Wednesday

[04] Greece-mutual funds-report

[05] Aspis Pronia-private placement

[06] Balkan Export-ASE-listing

[07] ASE-close

[01] Papandreou-Albright-Cyprus

NEW YORK (ANA M. Georgiadou) Greece believes that the negotiations for a settlement of the Cyprus problem should enter a substantive stage, as the fourth round of UN-led proximity talks between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities got underway here on Tuesday, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou said, following his meeting with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the same day.

?The first and foremost of our priorities, this week here at the United Nations, are the talks that began today for the resolution of the Cyprus problem. Greece believes that we should enter into substantive negotiations on the problem, an issue I had the opportunity to stress to my counterparts of the European Union during our meeting this morning, and of course, to Mrs. Albright, to whom I stressed the need for every effort, during the fourth round, to make the talks substantive,? Papandreou said.

?I must say that everyone has the best intentions and especially the US to do whatever they can for the two sides to enter into substantive talks,? he added.

Discussing his latest tour of the Balkans, Papandreou said ?I had the opportunity to brief both the ?15? (EU ministers) and Mrs. Albright on my trip to the Balkans (Skopje, Belgrade, Pristina, Podgorica). A trip, which I believe, was especially successful, promoting thoughts on overcoming the impasse and at the same time giving the message for the need of stability and democracy in the region.

?We the ?15? ministers discussed in detail on this subject, regarding the next moves of the European Union and the prospects. Of course, I discussed relevant details, on how exactly the trip faired, with Mrs. Albright,? Papandreou added.

[02] Soccer-UEFA Cup-AEK

AEK Athens drew 2-2 with Vasas Budapest in a first round, first-leg UEFA Cup match in Budapest on Tuesday night.

AEK went 2-0 ahead with an own-goal by Tamas Peto in the 48th minute and with Demis Nikolaidis scoring the Greek team's second goal three minutes later.

The Hungarian team drew level with goals by Peto in the 88th minute and by Laszlo Komodi in the 90th minute.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates-Wednesday

Indicative rates released by the central bank for the next working day.

Wednesdays rates (buying)

Euro 335.514

U.S. dollar 389.340

German mark 171.546

French franc 051.149

Pound sterling 545.699

Irish punt 426.015

Belgian franc 008.317

Luxembourg franc 008.317

Dutch guilder 152.250

Italian lira (100) 017.328

Austrian schilling 024.382

Danish kroner 044.922

Swedish kroner 039.982

Finnish mark 056.430

Spanish peseta 002.017

Portuguese escudo 001.674

Japanese yen (100) 366.167

Swiss franc 220.536

Norwegian kroner 041.995

Cyprus pound 587.403

Canadian dollar 262.682

Australian dollar 217.719

[04] Greece-mutual funds-report

Greece's mutual funds' assets fell by 602 billion drachmas in August to a total of 10.97 trillion drachmas, from 11.57 trillion in July, recording a loss of 964 billion drachmas from the start of the year, Union of Institutional Investors' figures showed on Tuesday.

The monthly report said that the August drop reflected a 206 billion drachmas fell in Domestic Money Market funds and a 407 billion drachmas decline in Domestic Equity funds, due to a sharp fall in equity prices on the Athens Stock Exchange.

The number of mutual funds operating in Greece increased by two to a total of 237 in August.

[05] Aspis Pronia-private placement

Aspis Pronia, a Greek general insurance company, on Tuesday sold a 4.23 percent equity stake to foreign investors through a private placement of its common shares.

A company statement said the move was aiming to expand its international profile, to attract great weight international investors to its equity capital and to further boost trading of its shares.

The private placement followed a three-day roadshow in London and other big European financial centres.

[06] Balkan Export-ASE-listing

Balkan Export will resume trading of its shares on the Athens Stock Exchange, following a decision by ASE's board.

The company, acquired by Michaniki Group last year, trades 181,737,652 common and 19,479,448 preferential shares, at a listed prices of 166 drachmas a share.

Balkan Export reported a turnover of 1.7 billion drachmas and pre-tax profits of 300 million drachmas in the first half of 2000 and expects these figures to exceed 5.0 billion and 600 million drachmas by the end of the year, respectively.

[07] ASE-close

Equity prices remained under strong pressure for the second consecutive session on Tuesday to end sharply lower, pushing the general index back to the 4,000 support-level.

Traders said the market has entered a phase of "violent" fluctuations and noted that although Tuesday's sharp fall was exaggerated it was consistent with technical analysis of the market.

Blue chip stocks, particularly banks, were heavily hit by waves of profit-taking selling mainly from Greek small and institutional investors.

The general index ended 4.86 percent lower at 4,030.93 points, off the day's lows of 4,021.73 points. Turnover was a moderate 152 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 4.54 percent lower at 2,294.81 points, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index dropped 4.92 percent to end at 547.31 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 8.38 percent lower at 638.10 points.

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