Czech equities, as measured by the PX Index, were up 0.8% for the week to close at 1,827.4. The overall volume of trading on the PSE reached USD 812.8m, 16.4% above its 12M weekly average of USD 698.2m.
CEZ became the most successful and most actively traded listing during the past week, gaining roughly 6.6%. The company has started the buyback of its own shares and the shares in turn moved up to an all time high last week. CME also jumped by more than 6% after it published its mixed 1Q07 results and bullish outlook for 2007. Erste Bank declined on a reaction to its 1Q07 figures, which came in unconvincingly. Philip Morris increased by 4.5% on good domestic demand. Zentiva was off by about 2% ahead of the announcement of its 1Q07 results, which are scheduled to come out on May 14. Both real estate developers, Orco and ECM, also declined by 2% as JPM put out a sector downgrade on European property stocks to “underweight” from “neutral”.
This week on Friday, May 11 at 10:00 CET, Komercni banka should announce its 1Q07 results. We expect to see its net profits increasing by 5.4% q/q to CZK 2.4bn.