Astra Rebound Lifts Market
May 02, 2011
The general index rose 15.69 to 1952.71, while the Affarsvarlden General Index rose 15.8 to 1977.9. Volume totaled 2.95 billion kronor worth of shares, up from 2.03 billion kronor a day earlier. Overall, 83 stocks advanced and 46 declined. The pharmaceutical group's Class A share surged 7 kronor to 275 on the day's highest volume. The rebound was seen as a correction following several days of losses resulting from weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings. Elsewhere in the market, Atlas Copco rose 1.5 kronor to 119 after the engineering company said its six-month pretax profit rose 12% to 1.567 billion kronor from 1.395 kronor a year earlier. Although the figures were in line with consensus expectations, investors cheered the company's prediction of higher profit in 2011 than in 2010. Trelleborg, the mining group, dropped 0.5 kronor to 85 after the company warned that profit trends in the second half of the year will be weaker than was the case in the first half.
