Nearly three months of continuous growth on the Prague Stock Exchange, during which the market soared to a 3-year high, came to an end amid profit taking last week. The headline PX-50 index lost 1.9% on the week and closed Friday at 570.5 points. The blue-chip PX-D index lost 2.4% to 1,415.7 points.
The profit taking affected all blue-chip stocks with the exception of Unipetrol, which rose a strong 9.1% to CZK 57.1, largely on privatization speculation though there was no related news. The major loser last week was Philip Morris CR, which closed down 5.9% to CZK 13,006. Komercni banka lost 3.8%. Ceske radiokomunikace and CEZ both lost 3.2% and closed Friday at CZK 220.6 and 113.8, respectively. Cesky Telecom lost 3.5 % to CZK 364.6 on a very large volume of USD 47.0 mil. (85% above the 12M weekly average).
The overall traded volume on the PSE was USD 210.3 mil (51% above its 12M weekly average). As usual, Komercni banka was the most traded stock last week, with a volume of USD 49.8 mil.
Jitka Oppitzová