Czech equities, as measured by the PX Index, were up by 1.0% for the week to close at 1,701.3. The overall volume of trading on the PSE reached USD 909.7m, 15.4% above its 12M weekly average of USD 788.2m.
The best performance of the past week came from Orco and ECM due to the positive sentiment being felt for the real estate sector. Orco was supported by an upgrade from some analyst and its target price was set at EUR 164.1 (CZK 4,545). Also, Telefónica O2 CR showed great growth ahead of the announcement of its 4Q06 results. It was up 3.4% for the week with international accounts clearly on the buy side. CEZ and Unipetrol were impacted both by MOL’s results, which came in worse than expected, and by low energy prices. Zentiva strengthened and followed along the path of its Hungarian peers. The new listing on the market, Pegas, was hit by a downgrade coming from a domestic broker. The new target price was set at CZK 650 per share. Komercni banka reached a 9M high. For this week, we expect CEZ’s and Telefonica’s results, which should be posted on Thursday, February 22. The market should react positively as Telefonica is expected to announce higher dividend than consensus and CEZ should report strong earnings growth.