Czech equities, as measured by the PX Index, were off by 1.3% to close last week at 1,544.8. The overall volume of trading on the PSE reached USD 751.1m, 3.4% below its 12M weekly average of USD 777.5m.
The market closed lower despite the positive performance of the Polish and Hungarian markets. This has been due to continued profit taking and worries about a weak dollar. Erste Bank reached an all-time high during the past week, but finished the week down by 2%. Morgan Stanley placed 1.8m shares on the market at the end of the week. CEZ was, as usual, the most actively traded stock on the Prague exchange and it also rose to a new all-time high last week. CEZ was one of two stocks finishing in positive territory.
Unipetrol showed the best overall performance - gaining almost 5% with good buying interest from international investors. Komercni Banka continues its time in negative territory, after the company announced its 3Q06 results. Heavy volumes went through the market. Orco also too a heavy hit after coming out with its weak 9M06 results. Additionally, Orco's management lowered their FY guidance by 10% and HSBC started to cover Orco with an ‘underweight’ recommendation. For this week, we are expecting to see the market have a chance to react to a fair amount of macro economic data, which will be coming out later in the week.