Sharp upswing in American stock market sends European bourses higher - Helsinki up 4.8% on Thursday

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And so it goes on.
      On Thursday the stock markets experienced a positive day for a change. Prices rose briskly, both in Europe and the United States.
      The greatest cause for joy was the positive tone of the American market. The fact that the number of those seeking unemployment security turned into a downward trend was seen as a stimulating sign in the current economic situation.
     
Wall Street reacted immediately with a steady rise, which in turn, perked up the European exchanges towards the end of their trading day. By the close, the largest share indices in the United States had risen vigorously from just under four per cent to 4.7 per cent.
      However, in Europe the considerable see-sawing of banking stocks during the course of the day still speaks of the continuous uncertainty of the markets.
     
On average, the largest stock exchanges in Europe recovered by three per cent on Thursday. In Helsinki a growth figure of 4.9 per cent was observed on the weighted OMX Helsinki 25 index.
      One example of the big gains seen in Helsinki was M-real - one of the leading paper suppliers in Europe - which saw its stock price plummet by more than a quarter last week. M-real was up by more than 16 per cent by the closing of the market yesterday.
      Nokia was the most actively traded stock, and put on just over 3%.
     
On Friday morning, Helsinki first saw a short sharp sell-off before investors came in strongly once more, sending the General Index up by just over 2% by 13:15.
      The atmosphere continues to be jittery in the extreme, but European stocks were in positive territory across the board as the latest move to restore some semblance of market order - a ban on short-selling of some financial shares - started to bite.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Overseas investors continue to regard Finland as peripheral (11.8.2011)
  Shares initially up sharply in Helsinki on Wednesday after strong late rally on Tuesday in New York (10.8.2011)
  Helsinki Stock Exchange losses spill over from Monday into choppy Tuesday trading (9.8.2011)

Links:
  Nasdaq OMX Helsinki General Index

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