Positive mood spread over the PSE during the past week

Czech equities, as measured by the PX Index, jumped by 16.9% in the past week and closed at 877.9. The overall volume of trading on the PSE reached USD 931.3m, 20.5% above its 12M weekly average of USD 773.0m.

NWR eased recent losses and became the star of the past week. The stock skyrocketed by 35% on the back of rising coal prices. CEZ, Unipetrol and CME also showed jump by about 25%. Erste Bank reported 3Q08 results which were in-line with the estimates and the company announced EUR 2.7bn capital increase. Fitch revised its outlook for Erste Bank to Stable from Positive. Also CME posted its quarterly numbers. CME’s 3Q08 results fell behind street consensus due to worsened operations in Ukraine and Croatia and due to higher programming costs.

Reporting season continues this week and on Friday (7 October 2008) Komercni banka is to announce its 3Q08 numbers. As for the macrodata, we will be waiting for CNB’s decision on interest rates. We expect a 25bps cut to 3.25% to be announced on Thursday (6 October 2008).