Last week’s top losers on the Czech market were telecommunication titles: Cesky Telecom lacked investor interest and helped lead the market downward, losing 5.3% on the week, to CZK 319.60; Ceske radiokomunikace lost 5.5% and closed at CZK 361.30 on Friday. The main Prague equity index, the PX-50, lost 1.9% to 464.1 points. The index of the most-traded stocks, the PX-D, lost 2.4%, closing at 1,251.9 points.
Komercni banka and CEZ, the most traded stocks last week (USD 42.5 mil. and USD 27.2 mil., respectively, 68% of the PSE liquidity last week), also lost value: Komercni lost 1.9%, to CZK 1,865, and CEZ lost 4.4%, to CZK 92.44. CEZ was sent lower after the state National Property Fund, the majority stakeholder, voted at Monday’s EGM to delay the sector restructuring plan implementation, and after two major London-based brokerage houses downgraded the stock.
Unipetrol bucked the market trend last week and rose 16%, to CZK 40.25, as local investors speculate that the Czech chemical group Agrofert, the winning bidder in the Unipetrol privatization, will drop out of the tender; we see this as unlikely as Agrofert’s CEO recently reiterated the company’s interest in completing the acquisition. Philip Morris CR also strengthened, rising 1.4% to CZK 9,359 (a 50-months high). Total equity trading volume on the PSE reached USD 102.2 mil. last week, 8% above the 12M average.
The only expected corporate event this week concerns CEZ: the National Property Fund should discus energy-sector restructuring on Wednesday, May 29. The CNB’s board of governors is scheduled to discuss domestic interest rates on Thursday, May 30; we expect no change.
Jan Hajek