Wall Street woes send Helsinki stocks tumbling in Wednesday afternoon trading

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On the Helsinki Stock Exchange, Wednesday proved to be the worst day so far of a hugely dramatic week. Prices fell across the board during early trading, then recovered more or less to their opening level, but when New York opened in mid-afternoon Finnish time, there was only one direction in sight: downwards, and fast.
      Whereas stocks on Wall Street had been buoyed on Tuesday by rumours of the government bail-out of insurance giant AIG, the actual rescue left investors less impressed.
      A sell-off ensued, and early losses of around 2.5% in New York only got steeper as the day wore on.
      The two remaining large independent investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs led the way - both were down in double-digit numbers, with Morgan Stanley’s stock at one point being as much as 44% below its opening price.
     
The effect of the early New York plunge was to send shares in Helsinki sharply downwards, such that the OMX Helsinki all-share was off nearly four per cent (3.86%) by the close of business, on turnover of just over EUR 1.1 billion.
      The OMX Helsinki 25 index, consisting of the 25 most actively traded stocks on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, was also down nearly 4%, with Nokia, comfortably the most heavily traded single item, shedding 4.45%.
     
Few stocks were in positive territory, though software developers TietoEnator did recover some of Tuesday’s heavy losses to climb 6.4%.
      The Nordea, Pohjola, and Sampo banks were all down sharply, with Sampo losing 5%.
      Another big faller was the department store chain Stockmann. The Stockmann B share declined 9.4%.
     
When the market opened on Thursday, the nervousness continued.
      Any rally was very short-lived, and stocks were down around 1% in the first hour of trading, following the lead set by Tokyo and Hong Kong.
      The Nikkei in Tokyo fell 2.2% after going still lower during the course of the trading day, and other Asian bourses recorded even greater declines.
      By 11:30 on Thursday, the OMX Helsinki 25 index was 0.04% above its opening at 2087.15, but market behaviour was very skittish and volatile, and the index had touched 2043.19 at one point.
      The afternoon's performance is likely to depend greatly on the mood of investors in the United States. If they are still feeling jumpy, any gains accrued here during the day will almost certainly be wiped out once again in the late afternoon.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Stocks in Helsinki come under pressure but recover in late Tuesday trading (17.9.2008)

Links:
  OMX Helsinki Indices

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