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Stock market falls across the board

The Stockholm stock exchange fell across the board on Friday. Commodities and finance stocks led the decline.

Published: 8 March 2008 09:15 CET

The day began badly as the OMXS index plunged on opening following falls in New York and Asia during the night. The OMXS index closed at 306.6, down 1.4 percent for the day and 4 percent for the week.

US labour market statistics indicating that 63,000 jobs had disappeared in February contributed to the gloomy outlook. February thereby became the worst month for the US labour market in five years. Analysts had expected an increase of 25,000 jobs.

Credit concerns returned to the world’s stock exchanges and several Swedish finance stocks fell as a result.

SEB’s A share fell 4.1 percent, Nordea by 2 percent and Handelsbanken by 1.5 percent.

Clothing retail giant H & M continued to fall after the announcement of its takeover of Fabric Scandinavia on Thursday, closing down 1.2 percent to 326 kronor.

Pharmaceuticals firm Astra Zeneca battled against the negative trend to close up 1.3 percent to 229.50 kronor. Forestry giant Stora Enso climbed 4.6 percent to close at 80.50 and electronics retailer Netonnet shot up 10.7% to 67 kronor on the back of a strong interim report.

The Stockholm stock exchange was typical of European exchanges on Friday.

London’s FTSE fell 1.2 percent to 5,699.9. Frankfurt’s DAX index fell 1.2 percent to 6,511.6. Paris’ CAC 40 dropped 1.3 percent 4,619.

New York’s Dow Jones index fell 1.2 percent to close at 11,893.7 while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.4 percent to 2,212.5.

STOCKS

Stockholm stock market hits new all-time high

The Stockholm stock exchange closed at a record high on Wednesday, with the OMXS index climbing 1.4 percent to smash the previous record set in 2007.

Published: 15 January 2014 17:54 CET
Stockholm stock market hits new all-time high

The OMXS closed at 430.6, besting by more than three points the previous record of 427.2 set in July 2007.

"Finally, after more than five years, we've come up to the all-time high," Nordea stock strategist Martin Guri told the TT news agency.

The Stockholm stock market's advanced was in line with developments on other exchanges around the world, and can be attributed to a new World Bank forecast indicting advances in global economic growth. Strong retail sales statistics from the United States helped as well.

Guri rejected any notion that the Stockholm exchange's recent rise was any sort of bubble, but is simply a continuation of a strong 2013.

"We had the worst financial and economic crisis since the 1930s. Now we can say that we've left it behind and are moving on to the next chapter," he said.

"The market could rise somewhere between ten and 20 percent this year."

He added that there are many signs of economic improvements, and while economic growth may not be strong, risks have deteriorated, bolstering investor confidence. 

Guri cited central banks in the US, Japan, and the eurozone for stimulating stock market growth.

"They've promised financial markets they plan to keep interest rates low," he said.

Wednesday's OMXS rise was led by heavyweights such as retailer H&M and bank Nordea, which climbed 2.7 percent and three percent, respectively, as the Swedish fashion retailer reported better than expected sales results for December.

Other market winners on Wednesday included pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, telecom equipment maker Ericsson, and truck maker Scania, all of which rose by around two percent.

The Swedish krona weakened slightly against the dollar, which can now buy 6.48 kronor. The krona-euro exchange rate remain unchanged, at 8.80 kronor to the euro.

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