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WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Central European shares finished mostly higher
with largest banks leading advance in Warsaw and Budapest, while Czech drugmaker
Zentiva soared on the news pf a planned buyout bid for the company.
Warsaw's blue-chip WIG20 index rose 1.93 percent to 2,979.09, Prague's PX
fell 0.83 percent to 1,646.2 and Budapest BUX gained 1.28 percent to 22,882.68.
Markets in Warsaw and Budapest were closed for holiday on Thursday and
Friday and local investors jumped in to catch up with gains on other global
bourse made during their absence.
Poland's biggest and most liquid stocks led the advance with banks PKO BP
and Bank Pekao up 2.6 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively ahead of results
later this week.
Jeweller W.Kruk jumped 4.5 percent to the highest level since February 12
after clothing retailer Vistula & Wolczanka offered 23.7 zlotys per share in a
bid to take a controlling stake in the company.
W. Kruk's deputy chief executive called the bid hostile, adding it had
little chance of succeeding because the offered price was too low.
BRE Bank rose 2.8 percent ahead of its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
The net profit should rise 44 percent thanks to soaring demand for consumer and
corporate loans sparked by economic boom, an analysts' survey showed.
Prague shares gave up some gains made Friday, when it was the lone bourse
open in the region, with last week's biggest gainers falling on profit-taking.
Erste Bank and Central European Media Enterprises fell 2.5 percent and 2.4
percent, respectively, after each gained around 14 percent last week on strong
first-quarter results.
Orco Property Group also fell 2.9 percent following a rise of 20 percent in
trading last week.
Zentiva surged eight percent to a three-month high after PPF Group said it
planed to make a takeover bid to shareholders of the Czech generic drug maker,
which also led to broker upgrades at Citigroup and Wood & Co.
"Buyers kept coming into the stock on the (PPF buyout offer) news, and there
were not many major sellers today when London is closed," a Prague trader said.
Budapest shares tracked major markets higher, with news the European Union
had suspended an investigation into a proposed merger of Hungarian refiner MOL
with Austrian counterpart OMV having little impact on trading.
The EU said in a statement this morning that it would suspend the enquiry
while it waited for information from the companies. MOL was up 1.3 percent, just
off a morning high.
OTP, the country's largest bank, added 3.17 percent to trade at its highest
level since early March, while Magyar Telekom dipped 0.23 percent ahead of
results on Thursday.
piotr.skolimowski@thomsonreuters.com +48 22 447 24 36
ps1/ejp
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