Vienna shares close higher supported by gains in steel sector UPDATE

Vienna shares close higher supported by gains in steel sector UPDATE

	Published : Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:07 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Updating with full report)

VIENNA (AFX) - Share prices closed higher following a calm session triggered by a largely benign European sentiment and supported by gains in steel sector shares, dealers said.

The blue chip ATX closed up 0.76 pct or 34.31 points at 4,540.92, while the broader ATX Prime closed up 0.76 pct or 17.47 points at 2,327.09.

The ATX five, which covers the five largest heavyweights on the Vienna market, rose 0.86 pct or 24.98 points to 2,929.60.

Steel sector shares were higher with voestalpine, up 4.06 pct or 2.07 eur at 53.00, and Boehler-Uddeholm, up 2.69 pct or 1.80 eur at 68.80. Voestalpine benefited from considerations to protect Austrian companies against takeovers by investments of Austrian investment funds in these companies, traders said.

Online betting company BWIN, whose shares are very volatile, led the ATX higher, increasing 9.45 pct or 2.98 eur to 34.50.

Raiffeisen International grew 1.44 pct or 1.51 eur to 106.50.

Erste Bank advanced 0.62 pct or 0.36 eur to 58.36 on the back of recent M&A activites within the European banking sector, dealers said.

Flughafen Wien (Vienna Airport) added 1.15 pct or 0.85 eur to 74.85 ahead of its full-year results due on Thursday.

Andritz rose 0.39 pct or 0.72 eur to 187.00 after a significant target price hike to 192 eur from 150 eur at Raiffeisen Centrobank.

Oil giant OMV gained 0.33 pct or 0.14 eur to 42.24 after HSBC upgraded the European oil sector to 'overweight' from 'neutral' and after ING released a bullish comment on OMV.

Shares in UNIQA increased 0.28 pct or 0.07 eur to 24.67. The insurer said it will increase its share capital in Vitosha by a further 31 pct in the next few days giving it a majority 51 pct stake in Bulgaria's sixth largest insurance company. Furthermore real estate company CA Immo International said it intends to establish the new hotel fund H1 Hotelfonds together with UNIQA, with a total volume of 700 mln eur.

RHI climbed 0.28 pct or 0.10 eur to 35.30. This morning the refractories company reported a 15.8 pct increase in full-year EBIT for 2006 of 133.8 mln eur and said it has 'not yet ruled out' paying a shareholder dividend for 2006.

Shares in Wienerberger lost 0.70 pct or 0.32 eur to 45.25. The tile and brick manufacturer said it has concluded its share buyback programme, during which it repurchased 300,000 ordinary shares or 0.4 pct of outstanding shares.

Intercell slumped 7.78 pct or 2.00 eur to 23.70 after Merrill Lynch placed 2.5 mln shares in the biotech company through a book-building procedure, dealers said.

On the 'Prime Market' Austrian Airlines gained 4.63 pct or 0.50 eur to 11.30 ahead of a so-called 'open skies' deal, which would liberalise transatlantic air services and which is expected to be approved by EU member states on Thursday, traders said.

Shares in low-cost airline SkyEurope lost 5.49 pct or 0.25 eur to 4.30 after its said that Citigroup Global Markets Limited has passed the threshold of 5 pct voting rights in SkyEurope.

andreas.vogler@thomson.com

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