Czech equities rose by 0.9% last week as measured by the headline PX-50 index, which closed Friday at 665.1 points. The blue-chip PX-D index added 1.8% to 1,671.5 points. The overall traded volume on the PSE was USD 333.7m, which was 62% above the 12M average of USD 205.4m. Cesky Telecom was the busiest stock with USD 100.3m worth of its shares changing hands.
Unipetrol was the major gainer, its stock adding 6.6% to CZK 70.9 supported by information on an increasing number of investors interested in the privatization. Erste Bank rose 5.3% to CZK 3,361. CEZ and Komercni banka remained in positive territory as well, but added less than 1%. On the other hand, telecoms titles saw their prices fall - Ceske radiokomunikace lost 2.5% and Cesky Telecom gave back 2.0% of its value and consolidated at around the CZK 285 level. Philip Morris CR lost 0.8% to CZK 15,606.
As for this week, Unipetrol will be in the spotlight as today is the deadline for the preliminary bids; a shortlist should be announced on January 15-16. A tender for an adviser in the Cesky Telecom privatization should be launched by January 15. There is also some macroeconomic data to be released, starting with November's industrial output on Wednesday followed by December's PPI on Thursday.
Jitka Oppitzová