13.10.2010

Nordic exchanges advanced handily. Indexes worldwide are on the verge of breaking out of recent trading ranges on the upside. We are still at a critical juncture though. The Norwegian day traders who managed to beat the system received their reward; a few months in jail. Do not try to be too smart if you start buying stocks, rather be like a blinded horse in a race and keep running. Tilgin AB added to yesterday’s gains with a massive over 40% advance, after it announced a second major deal in a row. Aker Solutions was down 6% after negative news regarding the Longview coal-fired power project.

Chinese leadership is teetering perilously close to losing face in front of the whole world with the shenanigans they are pulling versus individual Norwegian performers and officials. They had a chance to take the high road with a measured reaction to Nobel peace prize, show that they understand that western institutions make decisions individually and to not to punish innocent performers collectively merely because they now seem to have been born in the wrong place but instead point out the error of the Nobel committee through proper evidence. China is quick to point out how ”west” should try to understand them but that should come with a similar effort reciprocally. This thing is not a power game. Naturally also the ill-perceived loss of face domestically and the need to keep everything under a wringer affects their thinking as well. Norwegian stocks had been underperforming other Nordic indexes for the last few days but were very strong today. The index tends to have more pronounced moves over all, especially given the notorious appetite for high risk moves that Norwegian individual investors are perceived to have.