Companies

The Fed's {decision on Wednesday to hold the key US interest rates unchanged inflicted losses on most European stock markets on Thursday; the Greek bourse followed suit, with its benchmark heading south for the third day in a row, on the lowest daily turnover in 11 sessions.

A Romanian company specialized in IT solutions and Konica Minolta Romania have fully developed the thermal analysis and face detection application dubbed the Thermal Analyzer, which scans a real-time video stream to generate alarms in the case of people whose body temperature exceeds a certain threshold.

OPAP, Europe's fourth-biggest betting business, reported a 38% drop in first-quarter profit on Wednesday due to the closure of outlets during the coronavirus lockdown in Greece and Cyprus.

Net profit in the January to March period stood at 35.5 million euros ($40.3 million), down from 57.2 million in the same period a year before.

Listed group GEK Terna aims to complete the issue process for a seven-year bond up to 500 million euros by early July.
The revival of the economy has allowed for the reactivation of these plans that are considered essential for the implementation of the investment program for the coming years, concerning renewable energy sources and the construction of the new Iraklio airport.

Naval shipyards are an "extremely" important component of the Romanian economy with enough competitiveness existing in this economic field that allows the further development of the areas where they are located and of the country, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Wednesday in Braila.

Bank stocks continued their advance on Tuesday, while investor attention was focused on the benchmark bond issue, but non-banking stocks dragged the main index lower at the start of this four-day trading week at Athinon Avenue.

Eurobank has moved ahead of Greek peers in the drive to cut bad loan volumes after completing a deal with Italian debt recovery firm doValue, and is now focused on boosting lending, its chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

"This is the most important thing we did in Nis. We brought seven factories to Nis, from Johnson Electric to this one today. But STP (Science and Technology Park) is what should make a difference," Vucic pointed out.

The third line of the metro in Sofia is expected to be partially put into operation by the end of August, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who inspected the construction of the line said. One kilometer of the new line in Sofia costs 40 million euros, while in other European countries the sum reaches 150 million euros, Borissov said.

The price of natural gas is 53% lower today compared to a year ago, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said at an extraordinary government meeting.