Stocks Track Slide in New York
April 03, 2011
The Affarsvarlden General Index fell 23.3 points to 1891.8. The general index lost 23.53 points to 1867.94. The SX-16 index, which tracks the 16 most traded shares, dropped 31.5 to 1936.66. Declining shares topped advancers, 100 to 24, while 52 remained unchanged. Total turnover fell to 1.34 billion kronor from 1.8 billion kronor Friday. On Friday, the Affarsvarlden General Index climbed 11.1 points. The general index rose 11.45 points, and the SX-16 index, which tracks the 16 most traded shares, increased 14.64 points. Dealers described trading as slow because of vacations. The negative impact on the index was accentuated by a fall in pharmaceutical company Astra, which has an index weight of around 15%. Astra's A share, the day's most traded issue with a turnover of 213 million kronor, shed 4 kronor to 269 kronor. The share was hurt by a company statement late Friday saying that Astra's U.S. joint sales company Astra Merck doesn't intend to raise U.S. prices of Astra's blockbuster anti-ulcer agent Losec. Telecommunications group Butters was hurt by the downward trend for U.S. technology shares. Butters gave up 2.5 kronor to 128 kronor. Ball and roller bearing group SKF kept falling, down 2 to 143 kronor, after posting a lower-than-expected six-month pretax profits Friday. Automotive group Volvo and engineering company Atlas Copco also slid. Volvo surrendered 4 to 135.5 kronor and Atlas Copco lost 3 to 116.5 kronor. Volvo is likely to attract more attention later this week when it prices its offering of 46 million shares in pharmaceutical company Pharmacia & Upjohn. Falling bond yields failed to lift the interest-sensitive bank & insurance sector, which was negatively affected by the general gloom, and lost 0.8%.
