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the market. BOCY shares, which are expected to open well bid following the bullish close of the shares on Sophocleous at EUR 3.08 or CYP 1.79. In intra-day trading a day before, Sophocleous marked up BOCY shares to a fresh record high of EUR 3.12/CYP 1.82. The 7-cent gap between the ASE and the CSE is likely to bring renewed buying on the Cyprus exchange, following the euphoria after the EFG Eurobank investment report forecast profits at CYP 42.5 mln and possible dividends at 304c a share.

President Tassos Papadopoulos said that his government has drafted a new document with amendments to the ‘Green Line Regulations’ that will benefit the Turkish Cypriots to pave the way for the implementation of full bi-communal trade. One of the changes is to abandon VAT and prevent sellers from registering with the Republic’s VAT Service.

A Limassol-based train trading company is suing BNPI and Swiss affiliate BNP Paribas (Suisse) SA for about $170 mln in a case seeking damages due to a claim of breach of trust. The bank is denying all charges, filing a counterclaim that alleges the Black Sea grain company, MarkMan Ltd., operated by Antonis Toskas and Sergei Piliugin, failed in its repayment obligations to the bank back in 20002002.

Local mobile phone rates are expected to drop by up to 40% while the fixed telephony rent is expected to rise by CYP 7-8 per month, as part of a major cost adjustment that Cyta will announce in the next 15 days. The state-owned telco also announced cost reductions of up to 77% ion international fixed line call rates, with tariffs to Greece nd the UK falling by 21-27%.

Cyprus Airways Chairman Constantinos Loizides has defended the decision of the Eurocypria board to provide a CYP 3 mln loan to CAIR’s troubled subsidiary Hellas Jet, that is reportedly losing CYP 1 mln a month.