Helsinki shares close flat; Wartsila soars to new high UPDATE

Helsinki shares close flat; Wartsila soars to new high UPDATE

	Published : Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:59 By : Agencies Print this Story

(updates with full report)

HELSINKI (Thomson Financial) - Shares closed little changed, with stock in Wartsila, the maker of ship engines and power plants, surging to a life high on the back of consensus-beating quarterly results.

The OMX Helsinki 25 finished barely changed at 3,330.77, masking sharp gains and falls for several leaderboard shares. The OMX Helsinki ended down 0.34 pct at 12,470.44, with volume at 1.34 bln eur.

Wartsila climbed 11.54 pct to 55.85 eur after revealing surprisingly strong third-quarter profit margins and plenty of new orders, while Outotec rose 2.83 pct to 50.87 eur and Nordea Bank 2.69 pct to 12.20 eur.

However, Neste Oil ended down 2.63 pct at 24.44 eur after its third-quarter results missed expectations across the board.

'(Third quarter) total refining margin comes in at a disappointing 10.2 pct, compared to our estimate of 11.6 pct,' one trader noted.

In forestry, UPM-Kymmene ended down 0.47 pct at 14.97 eur, with the group's third-quarter results triggering little reaction in the market. The world's largest maker of magazine paper had already issued a profit-warning a fortnight ago, and there were few surprises in the guidance, traders said.

Glitnir reiterated its 'strong buy' stance, with a target price of 25 eur, on expectations that upcoming price hikes will give profitability a boost from the first quarter of next year.

Peer Stora Enso fell 1.63 pct to 12.04 eur.

Elsewhere, Uponor extended falls with a further 4.11 pct dip to finish at 17.74 eur, while TietoEnator lost 3.33 pct to 16.82 eur.

Kemira shed 0.91 pct to 16.25 after saying it has appointed Harri Kerminen as its new chief executive from the beginning of next year, replacing Lasse Kurkilahti.

Kerminen has been head of Kemira's pulp and paper unit since 2006, and before that held several positions within the company.

Nokia, as ever the most liquid share, fell 1.05 pct to 27.32 eur.

james.etheridge@thomson.com

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