Stockholm shares close slightly lower on profit-taking; OMX suspended UPDATE

Stockholm shares close slightly lower on profit-taking; OMX suspended UPDATE

	Published : Thu, 24 May 2007 17:20 By : Agencies Print this Story

(updating with full report)

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Shares closed slightly lower after tentative gains midafternoon gave way to profit-taking following a negative start on the Nasdaq, but with the main excitement centered around OMX after trading in the Nordic bourse owners shares was suspended, brokers said.

The OMX Stockholm index closed down 0.46 pct at 415.85 while the OMX Stockholm 30 index closed down 0.48 pct at 1,273.09. Turnover was 25.258 bln skr.

The London Stock Exchange is making a bid of 190 skr per share for OMX, according to rumours circulating in the market, reported the online edition of Dagens Industri (Di.se)

Shares in OMX were suspended this afternoon at 180 skr bid after climbing from 172.50 skr earlier in the day. Michael Long, OMX analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in London said the LSE or the Nasdaq are the two most likely bid candidates.

'Most of the others are either not in related industries i.e. they are in the US futures business, or they are pretty involved elsewhere, such as Deutsche Boerse with Euronext,' said Long.

The LSE and OMX both declined to comment when asked by Thomson Financial News. Nasdaq was not immediately available for comment.

The rest of the market closed firmly on the downside after yesterday's strong gains.

Among heavily traded shares, Ericsson B closed down 0.95 pct at 26.10 skr, Sandvik down 1.18 pct at 125.25, Atlas Copco A down 0.85 pct at 116.50, and Hennes & Mauritz B down 0.11 pct at 439.

Volvo B closed down 0.52 pct at 144.50. Volvo said deliveries from its truck operations, which include Volvo Trucks, Mack and Renault Trucks, fell 17 pct in January-April compared with a year earlier, to 60,536 units.

Deliveries from Mack fell 54 pct, while deliveries from Renault Trucks were down 10 pct. Deliveries from Volvo Trucks fell 8 pct.

SAS closed down 0.96 pct at 154.50. SAS's Swedish cabin crew strike, set to start tomorrow, is expected to cost 20 mln skr per day and affect 20,000 passengers, in addition to other unspecified costs, the newspaper Dagens Industri reported, citing chief executive Mats Jansson.

Jansson said he is 'dismayed' by how the recent strikes are damaging the SAS brand, and said there is still a 'glimmer' of hope that tomorrow's strike may be avoided.

SAS has cancelled 'almost' all tomorrow's flights in SAS Sweden due to the strike.

Elsewhere, Nordea closed down 1.12 pct at 114.80, Skanska B up 0.62 pct at 161.50, Vostok Nafta down 2.65 pct at 385 and Electrolux B down 0.85 pct at 176.

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