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Bourse closes down after Telia report

The Stockholm stock exchange closed down 0.2 percent on Friday, down 5.7 percent for the week. A poor report from Telia was to blame.

Published: 9 February 2008 08:50 CET

When trading closed for the day the OMXS index stood at 302.3 points, down 0.2 percent on Friday, down 5.7 percent for the week and down 14.9 percent since the turn of the year.

Several major companies presented quarterly reports during the day, telecoms firm Telia Sonera was the the most high profile. Telia Sonera’s profit for the fourth quarter amounted to 5.8 billion kronor ($0.91 billion), below market expectations. The announcement that 2,900 jobs were to be cut in Sweden and Finland sent the company’s share price tumbling 10.6 percent to 50.50 kronor.

Telecoms operator Tele 2’s stock fell 3.2 percent to 122.00 kronor.

Newspaper concern Metro continues to report losses in Sweden. Despite a fall in profits in the fourth quarter, Metro climbed 3.0 percent to close at 5.20 kronor.

Property company Wihlborgs reported a pre-tax profit of 821 million kronor for the fourth quarter, up from 537 million kronor in the corresponding period of 2006. The company’s stock climbed 2.4 percent to 118.50 kronor.

Scandinavian airline SAS continued to fall heavily following the presentation of its report early in the week. SAS closed down 5.8 percent to 52.75 kronor.

The banking sector performed poorly on Friday. SEB was down 1.1 percent to 141.25 kronor, Handelsbanken dropped 0.9 percent to 173.00 kronor and Swedbank fell 0.3 percent to 157.50 kronor. Nordea broke the mould and climbed 1.6 percent to 87.10 kronor.

Ericsson rebounded 3.3 percent to 13.20 kronor despite news that key competitor Alcatel Lucent had reported a major loss of €3.5 billion (33 billion kronor).

London’s FTSE-index climbed 1.1 percent to 5,784 points, Frankfurt’s DAX-index climbed 0.8 percent to 6,789.1 points while the Paris CAC-index dropped 0.3 percent to 4,709.7.

SWEDEN AND UKRAINE

Ericsson suspends all Russia operations indefinitely

Swedish network equipment maker Ericsson said Monday that it was suspending all of its Russian operations over the war in Ukraine for the foreseeable future.

Published: 11 April 2022 19:42 CEST
Ericsson suspends all Russia operations indefinitely

The telecom giant already announced in late February that it would stop all deliveries to Russia following Moscow’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

“In the light of recent events and of European Union sanctions, the company will now suspend its affected business with customers in Russia indefinitely,” Ericsson said in a statement.

The company added that it was “engaging with customers and partners regarding the indefinite suspension of the affected business.”

“The priority is to focus on the safety and well-being of Ericsson employees in Russia and they will be placed on paid leave,” it said.

READ ALSO: How has Sweden responded to Putin’s war in Ukraine so far?

Hundreds of Western firms ranging from Ikea to Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs and McDonald’s have stopped operations in the country since the invasion, with French banking group Societe Generale announcing Monday it was selling its stake in Russia’s Rosbank.

Ericsson has around 600 employees in Russia, and is a “major supplier to the largest operator MTS and the fourth largest operator Tele2,” a company spokeswoman told AFP, adding that together with Ukraine, Russia accounts for less than two percent of revenue.

As a result, the equipment maker said it would record a provision for 900 million Swedish kronor ($95 million, 87 million euros) for the first quarter of 2022 for “impairment of assets and other exceptional costs,” though no staff redundancy costs were included.
Ericsson is due to publish its first quarter earnings on April 14.

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