Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-05-18

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast-Friday

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

[03] Hellenic Sugar-share capital increase

[04] Delta Informatics-share capital increase

[05] Europarliament - Greece - EMU

[06] Simitis-Papantoniou-economy (recasts)

[07] ADEX-close

[08] ASE-close

[09] Industrial production-February figures

[10] F-4 crash - Four dead (recasts)

[01] Weather Forecast-Friday

Sunshine is forecast throughout the country on Friday, turning cloudy on the mainland late in the afternoon.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

Following are indicative foreign exchange rates for commercial banks released by the central bank for the next working day.

Fridays rates (buying)

Euro 333.987

U.S. dollar 373.746

German mark 170.765

[03] Hellenic Sugar-share capital increase

A Hellenic Sugar's general shareholders' meeting on Thursday approved a plan for a 32.1 billion drachmas share capital increase.

Vassilis Papayiannis, the company's chairman, said that this year's profits would exceed 4.0 billion drachmas due to a rise in cultivated areas and an increase in sugar prices.

Hellenic Sugar expects its turnover to reach 87 billion drachmas in 2000 from 62 billion last year and repayment of all debt, currently at 5.0 billion drachmas.

[04] Delta Informatics-share capital increase

Delta Informatics will seek to raise one billion drachmas from the market through a share capital increase plan which envisages issuing of 10 million new common shares of nominal value of 100 drachmas each, at issuing price of 2,500 drachmas.

A company's extraordinary general shareholders' meeting on Wednesday approved the plan.

Delta Informatics said that its equity capital would rise to 7 billion drachmas, or 70 million shares.

The share capital increase plan coincides with a similar move by Singular, a listed software company, in the framework of a merger deal between the two companies. The expected raised capital of 25 billion drachmas will be used for new investments and acquisitions in Greece and abroad.

Delta Informatics said its income totalled 4.21 billion drachmas in the first four months of the year, up 40 percent from the same period in 1999, while profits totalled 1.56 billion, up 38 percent from 1999.

The company expects 2000 income to exceed 14.2 billion and profits 5.8 billion drachmas.

[05] Europarliament - Greece - EMU

STRASBOURG (ANA Ch. Haralambopoulos) The Europarliament on Thursday approved Greece's application to join the euro zone by an overwhelming margin.

The 626-member assembly voted by 376 in favour to 42 against and 80 abstentions to approve a report that includes an all-important recommendation that Greece be admitted into EMU on Jan. 1, 2001 as the euro zones 12th member.

In line with the Europarliaments charter, no amendments were included in the approved report. Two amendments were included, rather, in a report by Spanish Euro-MP Jose Javier Pomez Ruiz focusing on EU member-states implementation of stability and convergence programmes. However, both amendments were later rejected during the vote.

[06] Simitis-Papantoniou-economy (recasts)

Greece is entering a new era of stronger competitiveness and with numerous economic prospects, National Economy and Finance Minister Yiannos Papantoniou told reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Costas Simitis on Thursday.

The two men discussed the course of the economy and the country's EMU membership procedure.

"We expect a formal approval from a European Council on June 19-20 to put Greece as the 12th member of the Euro-zone," Papantoniou said.

Commenting on the course of the inflation, he said that the impact from a rising dollar and higher international oil prices was commom for all European Union countries but expressed the hope that this phenomena would prove temporary, because the euro currency would recover and the price of oil could not remain for ever at the 30 US dollars level.

"Such a shift would lead us to lower inflation rates," Papantoniou said.

He said that the privatisation of Hellenic Telecoms and Public Power Corporation would be made through structural changes which would ensure workers' rights.

[07] ADEX-close

Derivatives prices ended higher for one more session on the Athens Derivatives Exchange on Thursday. Trading was brisk with turnover at 15.2 billion drachmas and volume 4,334 contracts.

A total of 1,621 futures contracts were traded on the FTSE/ASE 20 index, worth 8.1 billion drachmas. The May expiring contract ended at 2,590 points, the June at 2,577.25, the July at 2,569 and the September contract at 2,580 points.

A total of 2,718 futures contracts were traded on the FTSE/ASE 40 index, with a turnover of 7.1 billion drachmas. The May expiring contract ended at 714 points, the June at 692, the July at 694.50 and the September contract at 675 points.

[08] ASE-close

Equity prices ended higher on the Athens Stock Exchange on Thursday with the market resuming its upward course following Wednesday's temporary correction.

Dealers expressed confidence over the short-term prospects of the market saying that nothing could stop its upward course except from a significant negative development, domestic or international.

Analysts said that the market has found support at the 4,650 level while its new technical resistance level was set at 4,800.

Smaller and medium capitalisation stocks, in the construction and parallel sectors, were chief gainers.

The general index ended 0.79 percent higher at 4,740.79 points, with turnover at 253 billion drachmas. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended at 2,608.84 points, down 0.45 percent, while the FTSE/ASE 40 index jumped 3.44 percent to 709.14 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 1,021.60 points, up 7.67 percent.

[09] Industrial production-February figures

The composite industrial production index, including mining, manufacturing, electricity-natural gas and water, increased 6.6 percent in February from the same month last year, official figures showed on Thursday.

The mining production index rose 16 percent in February, the manufacturing production index was up 3.4 percent and the electricity-natural gas-water production index jumped 13.8 percent over the same period.

[10] F-4 crash - Four dead (recasts)

Four people, including two teens, were killed Thursday morning when a Hellenic Air Force jet fighter crashed into a village home northwest of Athens, the second fatal crash involving a Greek warplane in 48 hours.

Authorities said the two-seater F-4 ?Phantom? crashed into a two-storey house located in the village of Antikyra, Viotia prefecture, at approximately 10:50 a.m. The two young women were inside the residence, reports state.

The US-made fighter had reportedly taken off from a nearby airbase only a few moments prior to the accident along with another F-4 for a routine training flight.

Both aviators onboard the second-generation warplane were also killed, while air force sources noted that the aircrafts automatic ejection system had not been activated.

One teen managed to escape from the residence following the crash and the ensuing blaze, although fire fighters later discovered the charred bodies of the two young women, aged 17 and 20, who were studying inside the residence at the time.

The two victims located in the house were identified as Argyro Papaharalambous and her cousin Irene Kollia.

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