The PX-50 index shot up 1.5% on Friday to a three-year high of 612.3 points. Volume was among the heaviest this year, as USD 52.5 mil. worth of shares were traded. Foreign buying pushed Cesky Telecom stock up 5.4%; the stock has risen 14.5% in the past two sessions. CEZ was second best performer on Friday and added 3.1%. KB closed at its high of the year, to just bellow 2,300 CZK.
The Czech market is currently driven largely by foreign orders; locals are relatively inactive and there has been a lack of market-moving news. We think, however, that after the sharp rally last week a correction may be in the cards this week (Cesky Telecom seems to be particularly overbought in the short term). For today, we expect profit taking to send most equities lower, while volumes will be relatively light given a public holiday in the UK.
Silvio Kotarac