The Prague Stock Exchange gained 1.0% last week as measured by the headline PX-50 index, which posted a three-year high of 618.5 points on Friday. The blue-chip PX-D index closed Friday at 1,537.6 points, up 0.8% on the week. The pace of growth had slowed, though, and volumes fell off. Still, the overall traded volume on the PSE last week was USD 229.4 mil., 65% higher than the 12M weekly average of USD 139.1 mil.
The major individual gainer last week was Unipetrol, which rose 5.7% supported by news that Russia’s Lukoil was announced as the privatization tender winner for Beopetrol of Serbia, the wining bid there fuelling expectations of robust bidding (and the consequent buyout price) for the Czech state’s 63% stake in Unipetrol. Komercni banka rose 3.8% to a six-year high of CZK 2,376 on no apparent news, and was again the most actively traded stock, with USD 93.7 mil. worth of its shares traded. Ceske radiokomunikace rose 3.7% to CZK 282.5. Cesky Telecom rose 1.2% to CZK 329 and Philip Morris was up only marginally, by 0.2%. CEZ closed the week unchanged at CZK 134.7. The only stock to lose last week was Erste Bank, which lost 1.0% to CZK 2,671.
As for this week, traders largely await the consolidated H1 IFRS results of CEZ, which are to be released on September 2 and which will include the results of its majority-held regional electricity distributors acquired in April.
Jitka Oppitzová