Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-07-20

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

CONTENTS

[01] Important ancient artifact recovered during Attica arrest

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

[03] Hellenic Tourism Real Estate to seek bourse entry next year

[04] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Friday

[05] Athens Bourse Close: Stocks surge again

[06] Woman sues Commercial Bank for giving her fake US dollars

[07] 6th Youth Parliament to be held on September 15-19

[01] Important ancient artifact recovered during Attica arrest

A ring of antiquities smugglers was uncovered and arrested by police in Markopoulos, Attica on Friday, who also recovered an extremely valuable ancient statue of a bull dating from the 4th-5th century B.C. in the group's possession.

The statue was found in a shed belonging to a member of the ring, sound technician Anastasios Panagiotou, 26, along with fragments from the same statue and a segment of a marble lecythus.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

Indicative buying rates for Friday

U.S. dollar 387.524

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 549.632

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 45.394

Swedish kroner 36.517

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 313.852

Swiss franc 224.295

Norwegian kroner 042.195

Cyprus pound 588.738

Canadian dollar 251.661

Australian dollar 199.642

[03] Hellenic Tourism Real Estate to seek bourse entry next year

State-owned Hellenic Tourism Real Estate SA is to seek entry into the Athens Stock Exchange early in 2002 as part of the government's wide-ranging privatisation plan, company officials told a news conference on Thursday.

The company, which is a subsidiary of the Greek National Tourism Organisation, has chosen Telesis as adviser in its initial public offer (IPO), managing director Anastasios Homenidis said.

The IPO prospectus is expected to be submitted to bourse authorities late this year, he added.

Hellenic Tourism Real Estate this week successfully sold three-year convertible privatisation bonds worth 800 million euros, representing 20-25 percent of its capital.

The paper is convertible into shares of the company or its subsidiaries, the Casino Resort Mon Parnes SA, which is also slated for Athens bourse listing.

Homenidis said that talks were being held with casino operators abroad to sound out any interest in the casino's privatisation.

Talks were continuing with a casino in Las Vegas, and another in France, he added.

[04] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Friday

Hot, sunny weather is forecast throughout the country on Friday, clouding over in the northwest from afternoon. Epirus and western Macedonia may see isolated storms later in the day. Winds north-northwesterly, light to strong. In the north, temperatures will range from 20C to 37C; on the rest of the mainland from 22C to 39C; and in the islands from 24C to 36C. Sunshine in Athens with temperatures between 25C and 38C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 23C to 37C.

[05] Athens Bourse Close: Stocks surge again

Equities on the Athens bourse jumped for a second straight session on Thursday, gaining fresh impetus after a rebound in the wake of a sharp decline at the start of the week, analysts said.

Buyers again scooped up high capitalisation paper, including blue chip banks, after fighting shy of quality stocks on Monday and Tuesday, driving up prices across the board, the analysts said.

The Athens general index closed at 2,588.12 points to gain 5.53 percent. Turnover was higher at 165.1 million euros (56.2 billion drachmas).

The FTSE/ASE-20 index for blue chip and heavily traded stocks ended 6.26 percent higher; the FTSE/ASE-40 for medium capitalisation paper 5.28 percent up; and the FTSE/ASE-80 for small cap equities gained 4.30 percent.

Advancers led decliners at 342 to 11 with seven issues remaining unchanged.

On Monday the bourse had shed nearly five percent as part of a lasting slump after buyers resolutely stayed out of the market with small capitalisation shares the worst hit.

[06] Woman sues Commercial Bank for giving her fake US dollars

A woman in Thessaloniki sued the Commercial Bank of Greece on Thursday, demanding 600 million drachmas compensation from the bank for allegedly giving her counterfeit dollar bills that led to her arrest in South Africa, where she had gone to attend her son's wedding.

According to Georgia Meleti, 57, 1,500 of US$2,500 she had obtained from a branch of Commercial Bank in Kalamaria were fake and resulted in her arrest and prosecution when she attempted to exchange them for local currency in Johannesburg.

As well as missing the wedding, Meleti claims she found herself charged with using counterfeit money and jailed. According to her lawyer, both Meleti and her son are now on Interpol's files.

[07] 6th Youth Parliament to be held on September 15-19

Greece's 6th Youth Parliament, which each year brings promising youngsters into the Greek Parliament's chambers to debate and pass resolutions on current affairs, is to take place on September 15-19.

This year, 17,847 teenagers from 1,589 schools in Greece, Cyprus and elsewhere participated in the programme.

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