Helsinki shares close higher led by forestries; Outokumpu slides UPDATE

Helsinki shares close higher led by forestries; Outokumpu slides UPDATE

	Published : Thu, 01 Feb 2007 18:24 By : Agencies Print this Story

(updates with full report)

HELSINKI (AFX) - Helsinki shares closed slightly higher, led by paper stocks following consensus-beating fourth quarter results from UPM-Kymmene, but gains were capped by a sharp fall for Outokumpu after it issued a disappointing outlook for 2007, traders said.

The OMX Helsinki 25 index closed up 0.41 pct at 3,007.44 points, while the OMX Helsinki index ended up 0.54 pct at 10,108.43. Volume was over 2.1 bln eur.

UPM-Kymmene rose 3.10 pct to 20.26 eur as strong fourth quarter figures were more than enough to offset the effect of a cautious outlook and worries about cost inflation this year, dealers said.

'These numbers are good across the board with net at 193 mln eur well ahead of the 123 mln the market had been expecting and pretax (profit) and revenues also ahead of consensus,' said a dealer at a leading European brokerage.

Mika Mikkola, an analyst at Kaupthing Bank in Helsinki, said: 'What was negative news is that they expect 1-2 pct cost inflation including all the cost-cut benefits (related to the ongoing profitability improvement programme) ... It appears chemical and even energy costs continue rising.'

UPM-Kymmene's results pulled peers higher, with Stora Enso adding 2.04 pct to 13.03 eur and M-real climbing 3.64 pct to 5.41 eur. They both publish fourth quarter figures next week.

Early gains on Wall Street helped lift other leaderboard shares, with Nokia ending up 1.01 pct to 16.96 eur, Neste Oil up 2.27 pct to 23.90 and Konecranes up 1.54 pct to 25.12 eur

However, Outokumpu gave up 8.35 pct --the third biggest fall of the day-- to 28.10 eur after the stainless steel producer issued a weak outlook for 2007, traders said. That fall comes after the stock reached a record closing high yesterday ahead of the numbers.

Outokumpu Technology fell 4.06 pct to 22.70 eur.

james.etheridge@afxnews.com

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