The equity market yesterday

The Prague market rallied in a manner that has not been seen for some time, with the PX-50 index adding 3.21% in decent trading. The major stock of the day was a surprise to many market participants—Cesky Telecom (CT)—which gained as much as 11% intraday (high of CZK 493). News about the faster privatization of the company approved on Monday was the cause. We, however, believe that rather than a fundamental impulse, the market was taken by a sudden and large buying flow that caught some players short on the way up. Volume in CT was good—more than 780,000 shares changed hands yesterday. Our outlook for today is that CT is likely to lose some of yesterday gains. The rest of the market should follow the trading in CT. Monday's market volume reached USD 22.06 mil.

(Milan Procházka)