12.11.2010

The realization of inevitable further tightening measures hit mainland investors hard today and Shanghai exchange slumped 5%. This put a damper on Nordic stocks as well. Macro date hinting a slowing down in the recovery in the EU did not help. Later on in the session the hopes of QE2 printing start did briefly bring us close to zero but the day ended down nearly 1%. The consensus on the markets is tilting towards Ireland not being able to manage without EU help. The substance coming out of the G20 meeting was not watered down like I presumed, but instead it had absolutely no substance in it to begin with.

Bergen group pulled the rug out of recent rally with a negative result. The company said it is taking longer than expected for the offshore sector orders to come in and this has led to low capacity utilization. They say it has been a conscious decision not to downsize in anticipation of future growth. Other sectors, particularly shipbuilding, did fare somewhat better. The speculation of the next moves from Spring Capital / CIMC raffles kept the stock market price from sinking more than it did. Bergen group today accepted early conversion of the NOK 120 Million loan into equity, which will bring up Spring Capital’s ownership to around one third in Bergen group calculating from (as the quarterly report notes as well) the latest flagging from Spring Capital. The group is still optimistic that there will be many orders within next half a year but now concedes that the slow recovery will still contribute to lower activity until the end of H1 2011.

Media group Schibsted ASA reported EBIT of 343 million NOK in Q3. The result and sales both slightly missed expectations but were a marked improvement from a year ago. Scandinavian advertizing revenue was up 15%. Work on developing the online classifieds continues inernationally. The group also has user payment models for digital newspapers in high priority. The stock ended the day the same level it did yesterday.

Norwegian furniture company Ekornes reported solid revenue growth but lower margins. The company sees continued improvement in Sweden and Finland but says the sales in Denmark and in particular in Norway are slowing down. The company’s stock ended the day down 3%. Aker Biomarine said that all conditions for the acquisition of EPAX Holding AS from Austevoll Seafood ASA are now fulfilled and that the rights offering will be registered shortly. Renewable Energy Corporation was hit hard today and sched 5%. Precise Biometrics gained 12.5% on a new product launch. The company introduced a new combined fingerprint and smart card reader. Cardo’s 212 million SEK Q3 result sparked a 2% rise.

Pronova Biopharma’s revenue of over 350 million NOK and 135 million EBITDA were well received by the market. Comments about Omacor/Lovaza(TM)future potential and new drug development plans helped the cause.Oncology drug development focused Algeta ASA third quarter earnings did not create a big spark. The main news was that phase III trial of Alpharadin’s recruitment (together with partner Bayer) for treating bone metastases is on track to be completed at around the year’s end.