Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-12-29

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM and PASOK secretary discuss political developments

[02] Turkish warplanes infringe Athens FIR, violate national airspace

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates: Tuesday

[04] Weather Forecast: Rain, storms on Tuesday

[05] Greek stocks move higher on Monday

[01] PM and PASOK secretary discuss political developments

Prime Minister Costas Simitis and his ruling PASOK party's Secretary Mihalis Chrysohoidis discussed political developments in the country on Monday.

Any developments in PASOK will be scheduled by Simitis himself, apparently after February 14 when the party's Panhellenic Conference will be taking place as the two men decided during Monday's meeting.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Chrysohoidis said PASOK's election programme will be discussed at the Conference, as had been decided during a meeting of the Executive Bureau in the past.

[02] Turkish warplanes infringe Athens FIR, violate national airspace

Four formations of Turkish warplanes made an equal number of infringements of air traffic regulations in the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR) on Monday, according to press reports.

Two violations of national airspace were also recorded in the region of the eastern Aegean.

In all cases, the 12 Turkish aircraft were recognised and intercepted immediately by Greek air force jets.

It was revealed that two of the Turkish aircraft were armed.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates: Tuesday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.259

Pound sterling 0.709

Danish kroner 7.503

Swedish kroner 9.161

Japanese yen 134.7

Swiss franc 1.571

Norwegian kroner 8.501

Cyprus pound 0.590

Canadian dollar 1.644

Australian dollar 1.693

[04] Weather Forecast: Rain, storms on Tuesday

Rain and storms are forecast in all parts of the country. Winds southerly, very strong to gale force. Temperatures in Athens 9C to 15C and in Thessaloniki 7C to 10C.

[05] Greek stocks move higher on Monday

Greek stocks ended Monday's session slightly higher in the Athens Stock Exchange with prices unable to maintain their earlier bigger gains due to lack of follow-through buying and thin trading conditions in the market.

The general index ended at 2,211.93 points, up 0.11 percent, with analysts predicting low volumes and minor price gains in the next two sessions, the last in 2003.

The Investment and Construction sectors scored the biggest percentage gains of the day (1.08 percent and 0.74 percent, respectively), while the Textile and Publication sectors suffered the heaviest percentage losses (1.08 percent and 0.92 percent, respectively).

National Bank, Piraeus Bank, Alpha Bank, General Bank, Hellenic Telecoms, Cosset, Hellenic Petroleum and PPC were the most active stocks in the market.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index rose 0.28 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index fell 0.09 percent, the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index eased 0.03 percent and the wider FTSE/ASE 140 index rose 0.20 percent.

Sector indices ended as follows:

Banks: 4,095.02 +0.30%

Telecoms: 859.40 +0.17%

Insurance: 697.26 +0.99%

Investment: 818.24 +1.08%

Construction: 865.46 +0.74%

Textiles: 321.80 1.08%

Industrials: 1,154.75 +0.01%

Holding: 1,359.98 +0.56%

Base Metals: 431.06 0.54%

Non-ferrous Minerals: 758.45 +0.28%

Publications: 419.32 0.92%

Retail: 1,054.06 +0.28%

IT: 421.56 0.12%

IT Solutions: 256.69 0.57%

Wholesale: 499.02 0.10%

Food-Beverage: 463.18 0.23%

Small-caps: 153.14 +0.02%

Refineries: 1,076.22 +0.35%

Real Estate Management: 853.16 0.21%

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 150 to 127 with another 71 issues unchanged. Turnvoer was a low 88.5 million euros, of which 12.99 million were pre-arranged deals.

Ergas (+11.29%), Cyclon (+8.49%), European Credit (+8.29%), Xifias (+7.50%) and Mouriadis (+6.52%) were the biggest gainers while Naftemporiki (-17.76%), Compucon (-8.03%), Parnassos (-7.97%), Levenderis (-7.97%) and Lyberis (7.69%) were biggest losers.

Sex Form, Arrow, Vodafone, National Bank and Hellenic Telecoms were the most heavily traded stocks of the day.

The Greek market's capitalisation totalled 82.6 billion euros.

Share prices in the MSCI index ended as follows:

�lpha Bank: 23.04

Coca Cola: 16.30

Eurobank: 14.92

Panafon: 6.18

Aluminium of Greece: 16.08

Viohalco: 4.96

Public Power Corporation: 19.28

National Bank: 20.00

Hellenic Petroleum: 6.98

Hellenic Technodomiki: 4.98

Emporiki Bank: 19.30

Attica Enterprises:3.84

Athens Water: 6.24

Intracom: 5.22

Duty Free Shops: 14.76

Hellenic Telecoms: 10.22

Olympic Technical: 4.18

Piraeus Bank: 9.40

Titan Cement: 32.06

�otor Oil: 6.88

Foli-Follie: 21.96

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