The dollar came under modest pressure post FOMC, even though the Fed maintained references to “further policy firming” in its October policy statement, and lone dissident Lacker disagreed with the majority decision to keep rates at 5.25%. Markets had over-extended in anticipation of an unchanged policy statement, which for the most part, was delivered. Despite

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) reported that the fiscal deficit during the first eight months of 2006 worsened marginally to CYP 34.6 mln from CYP 27.1 mln in the same period a year ago, but excluding extraordinary receipts of 2005, the actual situation improved. As a  percentage of GDP, the fiscal deficit reached 0.4% in

Deutsche Bank is maintaining its buy recommendation on the shares of Bank of Cyprus with an unchanged price target of CYP 5.70 (EUR 9.8855) indicating an upside potential of 10% from current prices. DB is meanwhile increasing its price target on Piraeus Bank from 26.5 euros to 28 euro, on Eurobank from 30 to 32

Cyprus Forest Industries Pcl (CFI) has decided to distribute a dividend payment of 5 cent (EUR 0.0867) per share to its shareholders from its earnings of 2004. The ex-dividend date is set on 17 November 2006. The dividend will be paid on 24 November. Based on the latest closing price dividend yield stands at 2.98%.

Hellenic Bank Pcl announced the expansion of an existing cooperation pact with American Life Insurance Co. ALICO-AIG Life in the field of Mutual Funds. According to a cooperation agreement signed between the two organizations, Hellenic Trust AEDAK, subsidiary of Hellenic Bank Pcl, assigned to ALICO AIG AEDAK the mutual funds management. HB also has entered

Interfund Investments Pcl (INF) has increased the interim dividend to 1.25 cent (EUR 2.1679) from 0.75 cent (EUR 1.3) a year ago following a record jump in earnings in the first nine months of the year. The Company’s Board decided to distribute the interim dividend to all shareholders registered as at 17 November 2006. The

Ericsson and the leading Serbian operator, Telekom Srbija, have signed the first contract for the supply and implementation of a 3G network with HSPA functionality and associated services. This 3G network will be connected to Telekom Srbija’s existing core network, also supplied by Ericsson The contract is the result of a successful Ericsson 3G network

This week’s Panda Sofwtare report on viruses and intruders looks at the Sinowal.CR and Briz.R. trojans and at the Sohanat.U worm.Sinowal.CR is designed to collect confidential information from the computers it infects, such as passwords and other data stored in Protected Storage, or from email clients including Ak-Mail, Eudora and The Bat. Sinowal.CR also compiles

The Unicars Group, one of the leading automotive representations in Cyprus, has awarded to Logicom subsidiary Noesis, the project to upgrade and modernise  its internal information systems. Noesis has undertaken to implement the Microsoft Dynamics Nav (Navision) ERP, together with the XBlend VMS Camaleon which is a specialized system for the automotive sector. The integrated

A record number of Laiki Bank Pcl shareholders packed the Hilton on Tuesday cheering board member and Marfin Vice-Chairman Andreas Vgenopoulos to press ahead with ambitious plans to create one of the largest financial institutions of the region through the triple merger between Laiki, Marfin and Egnatia. Though the extraordinary general meeting was expected to