The Prague Stock Exchange strengthened in the last two weeks of 2003, with the headline PX-50 index rising by 2.8% to 659.1 points as buyers continued to accumulate shares before the end of the year. The blue chips PX-D index closed at 1,642.7 points, up 3.2%. The overall traded volume on the PSE was USD 161.4m, which was only 3% above the 12M average of USD 157.5m. Cesky Telecom was the busiest stock with USD 51.4m worth of its shares changing hands.
CEZ was the major gainer; its stock added 4.6% to CZK 145.7 after the BoD chairman commented on a favorable outlook for 2004. Philip Morris CR reached its all-time high of CZK 15,728 (+4.0%). Erste Bank rose by 3.8% to CZK 3,192 after a major broker upgraded its target price for the stock. Komercni banka and Unipetrol both rose by almost 3%. Ceske radiokomunikace rose by 0.7% and Cesky Telecom added 1.2%.
Note that the Prague Stock Exchange was closed December 24-26, on December 31 and January 1-2.
Jitka Oppitzová