04.02.2011

Nordic markets were relatively unchanged to wrap up the week.US job report did not cause much of a stir. Indonesian Central Bank nudged rates up.

Swedish government sold a third of its Nordea holdings (255 million shares) to institutional buyers in an auction reducing its ownership to 13.5%. Sampo which has openly shown interest in increasing its Nordea holdings bought 30 million of those shares and flagged 21.3% ownership percentage.Nordea dropped by five percent as the strike price was 74,5 SEK, well below Friday close of 78.4 SEK. Today Nordea closed at 74.35 SEK. SEB made further credit recoveries in the Baltic countries as the situation is stabilizing in the region. The bank says that corporate activity is gaining momentum. Operating profit for Q4 stood at 4.2 billion SEK. The stock backed down slightly.

A strong report from Volvo allowed Swedish engineering companies to continue good form for another day. Volvo reported higher sales from all regions, improved profitability and particularly strong cash flow. The carmakers shares are 2.71% more expensive after today than they were yesterday.

YIT toppled forecasts and its share price has now increased close to fivefold from financial crisis lows after gaining a further 10% today. Yara warned that fourth-quarter results, albeit strong, are below financial market expectations due to Burrup write-downs, delivery delays, pushing some of the sales backward to Q1 and higher fixed costs. The result will be the best fourth quarter of Yara so far with EBITDA at around 3 billion and the decline in share price today was moderate 2.4 percent.

PARKEN Sport & Entertainment A/S was reprimanded by Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen over misleading press release over the negotiations with Arkady Abramovich. The company disagrees but if you look up the December info on the matter, most people should agree that the entire issue was a big mess.

There are apparently a few big investors that will decline Galderma's offer for Q-Med and apparently Galderma will not get 90% of the shares. Neste Oil reported a strong result but renewable fuel outlook pushed the stock down heavily. The ramp-up continues and weak renewable diesel margins contribute to a weaker Q1 2011 in renewably fuels segment than Q4 2010. Neste was up instantly after the report but after the investors took their time to digest it Neste oil ended the day down more than 6%. Norske Skog was up more than 4% as fire raged on at Saugbrugs mill forcing it to halt production (no there are no suggestions here, it would be too easy a knock).