Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-09-18

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

CONTENTS

[01] Soccer-Greek Results

[02] Papandreou-EU-Yugoslavia

[03] Foreign Exchange Rate-Tuesday

[04] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

[05] Nova Bank-Commission-approval

[06] ASE-close

[07] Greece-car sales

[01] Soccer-Greek Results

AEK Athens and Aris Thessaloniki on Monday night won in their first matches of the season for the Greek soccer national league.

AEK beat Iraklis Thessaloniki 2-0 at home with Demis Nikolaidis scoring both goals in the 42nd minute and 80th minute.

Aris scored a stunnig 3-2 away victory against OFI Iraklion.

The Cretan team went 2-0 ahead with goals by Mauro in the 5th minute and by Gomez in the 15th.

Aris responded with two penalities scored by Christodoulou in the 37th minute and 63rd minute. Kyzeris scored the winning goal in the 77th minute.

[02] Papandreou-EU-Yugoslavia

BRUSSELS - (ANA-M. Spinthourakis) Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou on Monday expressed his satisfaction over the joint statement of the 15 foreign minister of EU member-states on the upcoming elections in Yugoslavia.

?Todays statement by the 15 is a very important decision that opens up the prospect of different policy by the EU toward Yugoslavia,? the Greek minister said during a press conference following the ministers meeting.

The European Union called on Yugoslav citizens to reject incumbent President Slobodan Milosevic's policies in Sunday's elections, vowing to lift sanctions should the opposition forces in the country emerge victorious from this election.

Papandreou stressed that the 15 ministers called on Yugoslavia to follow a democratic course, without specifying the terms and conditions under which such a course can be achieved.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rate-Tuesday

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

Tuesdays rates (buying)

Euro 336.169

U.S. dollar 393.060

German mark 171.881

French franc 051.249

Pound sterling 549.965

Irish punt 426.847

Belgian franc 008.333

Luxembourg franc 008.333

Dutch guilder 152.547

Italian lira (100) 017.362

Austrian schilling 024.430

Danish kroner 045.021

Swedish kroner 040.075

Finnish mark 056.540

Spanish peseta 002.021

Portuguese escudo 001.676

Japanese yen (100) 367.764

Swiss franc 220.621

Norwegian kroner 042.039

Cyprus pound 585.915

Canadian dollar 263.991

Australian dollar 213.751

[04] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

Scattered cloud is forecast throughout the country on Tuesday. Early morning mist is expected. Winds west-southwesterly, light to moderate. Temperatures on the mainland and in the Ionian will range from 15C to 34C; and in the Aegean islands from 21C to 32C. Mostly sunny in Athens, with temperatures between 20C and 34C. Light cloud in Thessaloniki, with temperatures ranging from 18C to 33C.

[05] Nova Bank-Commission-approval

The European Commission on Monday approved a plan for the creation of Nova Bank, a joint venture between Portugal's Banco Commercial Portugues (BCP) and Greek insurance group Interamerican SA.

A Commission announcement said that the creation of the new bank "does not provoke worries over free competition in the Greek market."

BCP is the largest banking and financial services group in Portugal while Interamerican is one of the largest insurance groups in Greece.

The Commission noted that the two partners' main activities were in Portugal and Greece, respectively, and that there was no case of overlapping each others' businesss.

[06] ASE-close

Greek stocks came under pressure to end sharply lower on Monday hit by worries over rising world oil prices and a higher US dollar parity in the foreign exchange market.

The general index ended at 4,146.38 points, down 1.38 percent, but off the day's lows of 4,079.89 points.

Banks' shares resisted pressures while shares in the construction sector ended higher ahead of the announcement of a draft bill by the government on the restructuring of the sector.

Turnover was a low 73.55 billion drachmas. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 1.38 percent lower at 2,366.35 points and the FTSE/ASE 40 index fell 2.7 percent to 547.73 points.

The paralllel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 0.73 percent lower at 661.09 points.

[07] Greece-car sales

New car sales continued rising in Greece in August to a total of 33,579 units, up from 27,834 units in the same month last year, National Statistics Service said on Monday.

From the 33,579 units, 26.616 were vehicles and the remaining 7,143 motorcycles.

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