Nordic markets caught a piece of global optimism late in the session to finish up for the day.The governor of the Bank of Portugal Carlos Costa admitted in an interview with business daily that government spending cuts and tax hikes have led the country into a recession. This renewed bets that the country may be forced to take a bailout.
Novo Nordisk had a volatile day after it commented in a vague stock exchange release that is has received a subpoena from Massachusetts District Attorney regarding potential criminal offences on the marketing of several of its lead products. Apparently the only information Novo has thus far is that it was asked to hand over production documents. While Novo was down more than 3% in the early trading, it seems its momentum is not stopping that easy and the stock pulled back to a slight positive number.
in the shipping and maritime services sector Wilh. Wilhelmsen Holding ASA managed a strong rebound in 2010. The company believes the positive trends toward the end of 2010 should carry onward to 2011. Worldwide many of the shipping companies are struggling with a lot of newbuilds entering market and older ships not being scrapped very fast. This overcapacity coupled with the halt in some raw-material exports from Australia as a result of the natural disasters has been pressuring rates as of late. Farstad Shipping achieved an operating income of NOK 905.3 and operating profit of 203.9 million for the 4th quarter.
Cermaq's best ever EBIT result gave the stock a slight push. The basis of this were increased farming volumes, high salmon prices and an improving situation in Chile. he dividend proposal translates to a 5.5% yield on today's closing price. Oriflame bested expectations and gained a nifty 4.4%.
Sydbank's top executive told newspaper Børsen that the bank has secured plenty of new customers as a result of the collapse of Amagerbanken. Additionally Sydbank may be interested in some of the parts of Amagerbanken after financial authorities have completed their reviews. Sparekassen Hvetbo's profit was reigned down by increasing loan losses. For 2011 the bank expects slightly positive results.
Construction firm Peab operative net sales increased by 9 percent and operating profit for the fiscal year was around 1.5 billion SEK. The company says that Nordic construction market has grown gradually but used more positive tone in the ensuing comments, even going as far as saying that the attractiveness of Peab as an employer is put to a test by the strong recovery. The stock sold off6.5%. Saab's profit grew slower than expected but the lofty order intake in Q4 pushed the stock up strongly.
Norsk Hydro's underlying earnings before financial items and tax were down on Q4 compared to Q3 on lower realized aluminium prices, seasonally lower volumes and higher costs. Energy was up on high prices and production. The company expects Qatalum aluminium plant ramp-up to be completed in 2011. Norsk Hydro expects to complete the planned acquisition of Vale's aluminium business in Q1. The company says that good development in aluminium market has continued into 2011 and the board proposes a dividend of 0.75 NOK per share. Hydro closed up 3.5% at 46,69 NOK.
Sevan Marine was fined by the board of Oslo Børs as a sanction for breach of information obligation towards the market. The company made an announcement on an equipment failure on a Sevan Driller a few weeks after the occurrance. The board of Oslo Børs felt that this was a material event that should have been brought to light immediately.
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