28.12.2010

It was another very light trading day in the Nordic markets. Today the direction was upward with the trend. A lot of macro data worldwide gave investors something to consider. U.S. Consumer confidence number disappointed and home prices declined. Japan’s core CPI fell 0.5% year on year in November. The Japanese officials harshened their tone regarding measures they will take to combat Yen’s advance. The industrial production index rose 1% in the same month, the first rise in a while. French GDP number for 3rd quarter missed expectations and industrial production declined.

China will end small car tax incentives news agency Xinhua reports. This will certainly add to the pressure that car manufacturers have been feeling after the new Beijing car purchase policy was announced. One may speculate on the effects that the hike of the tax from 7.5% till 10% on cars with engine size less than 1.6 litres will have from an environmental standpoint, but this was just one extra temporary tool to stimulate the economy from the get go that had been in place since 2009. China also cuts REE exports quotas by 11% in the first round for 2011.

Nokia Siemens Networks purchase of Motorola’s public carrier wireless network infrastructure assets has not yet cleared all regulatory hurdles. The company was expecting to complete the acquisition during 2010. Antitrust clearance has been received from US, European Union, Brazil, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan and Turkey. The sole Pending regulatory approval is that of the Chinese authorities. Nokia Siemens now expects the completion during Q1 2011. Considering that Chinese new year falls into first week of February this year and that brings many things to a halt for a lenghty period, toward the end of Q1 would sound more likely barring something happening fast.

AstraZeneca joined a list of companies halting experimental painkiller studies in anti-nerve growth factors when it announced it is voluntarily stopping early-stage studies of medi578. Studies of other compounds in the class have shown potentially increased risk of joint damage. Swedish Orphan Biovitrum and Pharming Group NV from the Netherlands announced first European sales of Ruconest for acute treatment of angioedema attacks in patients with Hereditary Angioedema (HAE). The sales were in Denmark and Norway. The sales price of one vial will be around 1800 Euro. Biovitrum was down 3.5% in today’s trading.

Pandora has established a presence in Russia as it has opened six stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Brinova Fastigheter is selling 50% of business area Logistics to Peab. Finnair adds one more weekly flight to Nagoya.