The PX-50 index gained 1% on heavy volume

The PX-50 index gained 1% on heavy volume, with more than USD 160m worth of shares changing hands in the SPAD segment. Cesky Telecom was the most active stock after France Telecom said it would join the Blackstone/CVC/Providece group in a bid for the 51% of Cesky Telecom; investors are also starting to be increasingly interested in the name as the deadline for the binding bids nears. Also worth a mention, the political situation in the Czech Republic so far seems not to be bringing any impact on the sale transaction. CEZ gained over 3% and thus corrected its losses from Thursday. Unipetrol dropped almost 3.4% on the day after the PKN CEO did not give any tangible guideline for the buy-out of the free float. Zentiva continues to benefit from a recent upgrade by a London bank as well as recent positive news from the generics drug producers sector. The outlook for today remains intact; we expect a further upside of the broad market.

The January foreign trade balance is to be released today at 9:00am CET. The market expects a surplus of CZK 4bn compared to a deficit of CZK 7.6bn in December. Patria expects a surplus of CZK 6bn.