Helsinki shares little changed midday

Helsinki shares little changed midday

	Published : Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:14 By : Agencies Print this Story

HELSINKI (AFX) - Helsinki shares were flat in midday trade, with the all-share index managing to stay above the 10,000 points level hit yesterday and Cargotec little changed ahead of its fourth-quarter results published around noon, dealers said.

At 11.45 am, the OMX Helsinki 25 was up 0.18 pct at 2,990.91 points and the OMX Helsinki was up 0.14 pct at 10,033.65 points.

Cargotec was down 0.06 pct to 49.27 eur.

The consensus pretax profit expectation is 63 mln eur, down from 68 mln eur a year earlier, a poll of six brokers by Thomson First Call shows. The focus will be on the group's order intake growth and guidance, analysts said.

M-real was leading the decliners, giving up 2.25 pct to 5.21 eur. The company said it has sold a 9 pct slice of Metsa-Botnia to its parent Metsaliitto for 240 mln eur in cash and turned down an alternative offer from UPM-Kymmene, citing 'strategic problems' as the reason.

M-real will record a capital gain of around 135 mln eur on the deal.

UPM-Kymmene was up 0.71 pct to 19.74 eur and Stora Enso up 0.08 pct to 12.68 eur. Finnish Paper stocks got a boost last night from news that Canada's Abitibi-Consolidated and US group Bowater will merge.

That merger is good news for capacity and prices in the paper sector but is unlikely to have a short-term impact on newsprint prices, traders said.

F-Secure was the biggest faller on the bourse, losing 11.11 pct to 2.24 eur, after the antivirus software maker said it expects to generate net sales of 95 mln eur this year - below market estimates. Projected profitability for 2007 is also below market expectations, analysts said.

Among other shares, Nokia was up 0.18 pct to 16.61 eur, Metso down 0.54 pct to 38.77 eur, Kone up 1.82 pct to 44.20 eur and TietoEnator up 0.77 pct to 20.96 eur.

james.etheridge@afxnews.com

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