Stockholm bourse ends week down

The Stockholm stock exchange ended a stable week with a decline on Friday as the OMXS index closed down 1.2 percent due to concerns over the economic outlook.

• More layoffs at Ericsson as profits plunge (25 Jan 10)
• Sony Ericsson losses lower than expected (22 Jan 10)
• Ericsson seals TeliaSonera 4G deal (13 Jan 10)

The Stockholm bourse followed the Asian and US bourses which fell on Thursday night. Other European exchanges also dipped as global economic concerns resurfaced. By the close of trading the OMXS index had dipped 1.2 percent to 312.7 points.

Telecom shares performed poorly with Telia Sonera recording a 2.9 percent fall to 46.30 kronor ($7.33) and Tele 2 fell 1.4 percent to 104 kronor.

Telecom network supplier Ericsson fell 2.3 percent to 13.40 kronor on news that the firm plans to brighten up its stock price with a 5:1 reverse split. Dagens Industri described the manouver as typical for a company in crisis and several commentators questioned the logic of the move.

Oil firm Lundin Petroleum was near the top of the winners list of major Swedish firms amid further gains in oil prices and renewed speculation that global oil production has reached its peak. Dagens Industri reports that according to Kjell Aleklett, a professor at Uppsala University and chairman of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, global production has remained at 84.5 million barrels per day over the last three years despite increasing global demand. Peak production is unlikely to ever climb above 90 million barrels per day, Aleklett forecast.

It was a good day for automotive firm Haldex who announced the purchase of Concentric, a British diesel engine pump supplier, for 920 million kronor. Haldex's stock climbed 5.9 percent to close at 98.50 kronor despite also reporting a decline in profits for the fourth quarter 2007.

Early trading in New York was weighed down by continued credit concerns. Investment bank Merrill Lynch encouraged pessimism with sell recommendations for Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac, the two largest US mortgage institutes. The day ended in positive territory however as news filtered through that financial firm Ambac is to be bailed out.

The Dow Jones-index closed up 0.8 percent to 12,381.0 points and the Nasdaq Composite-index climbed 0.2 percent to 2,303.4 points.

London's FTSE-index fell 0.7 percent to 5,888.5, Frankfurt's DAX-index fell 1.7 percent to 6,788.7 and the Paris CAC-index fell 0.7 percent to 4,824.6.