Alkis Hadjikyriakos Frou-Frou Pcl (FBI) reported a sharp increase in first half profit on the back of a satisfactory 5.5% increase in sales and containment of costs, which helped lift net profit by 46% year-on-year. Turnover increased by 5.5% YoY to CYP 6.29 mln from CYP 5.96 mln a year ago and CYP 12.2 mln

The Bank Employees Union (Etyk) brought the operations of National Bank of Greece (Cyprus) to a halt over a labour dispute concerning two managers brought in from Greece, which the union says should head back home, while the Bank insists that according to EU rules it is allowed to employ them in Cyprus. The strike

Laiki Bank and Hellenic Bank shares led the CSE higher on Tuesday while BOC shares were stable with activity picking up as more investors continued to target the shares of CPB and HB. Laiki shares maintained their gains above CYP 2.63, closing 1.12% higher at CYP 2.70 on CYP 1.27 mln volume. Hellenic Bank shares

…EU25 down to 8.1% The unemployment rate in Cyprus during June 2006 reached 5.6% from 5.4% according to a report by Eurostat, at a time when the euro-zone area jobless rate stood at 7.8% in June 2006 compared to 7.9% in May and 8.6% a year ago. The EU25 unemployment rate was 8.1% in June