In Brief
Foreign investors hold 23.86 pct of ASE shares Foreign private and institutional investors owned 23.86 percent of Greek stocks at end-January, valued at 23.57 billion euros, the Athens Stock Exchange announced yesterday. The bourse said domestic investors – private and institutional – owned a total of 76.14 percent or 75.22 billion euros, up from 75.45 percent at end-September 2001. (Reuters) ADEX to launch two new stock futures The Athens Derivatives Exchange (ADEX), Greece’s futures and options market, is planning to launch two new individual stock futures by the end of the month, its director of business development told Reuters yesterday. Last November, ADEX started trading single stock futures in blue chip stocks OTE Telecom, cellular operator Panafon, National Bank and Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling, adding to the products it offers. The new stock futures will be on two of the following three stocks: cellular operator CosmOTE, Alpha Bank and telecom equipment maker Intracom, ADEX executive Nicos Porfyris said. (Reuters) SETE conference The Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE) is scheduled to hold a conference on Tourism and Development on February 28. SETE president Stavros Andreadis told a press conference yesterday that the association decided to take action in view of the State’s lack of strategy regarding the tourism industry. Accounting firm Arthur Andersen is due to present a study on the local market. Development Minister Akis Tsochadzopoulos and Costas Karamanlis, leader of the opposition New Democracy party, are scheduled to speak at the conference. Forthnet eclipsed its rivals when it became the first alternative carrier to offer fixed telephony services to corporate users last December. Since last month, the service is now available to household users as well. Rates in general are 15 to 20 percent cheaper than those charged by incumbent OTE.
