On Friday, the Helsinki Stock Exchange saw a decline in its general index, which fell by 1.31 percent to 9,988.33 points. This marked the first time since May that the index dropped below 10,000 points and was the fourth consecutive day of decline for the stock exchange. Despite this, some positive news came from Purmo, an air conditioning company, which announced significant improvements in its purchase offer for the company. The improved offer included a cash consideration of 11.15 euros for C shares and 6.75 euros for F shares, with a minimum acceptance condition lowered to more than 80 percent of all shares. Purmo’s board of directors recommended shareholders to accept the offer, leading to a 6.67 percent increase in Purmo’s share price and making it the biggest gainer on the Helsinki Stock Exchange for the day.
However, while Purmo’s gains were positive news for some investors, most exchanged shares continued to decline on Friday. Nordea was among the most traded stocks of the day and ended with a decrease of 0.96 percent at 18:30. Exceptions included Kone, which closed up 0.38 percent, and Kesko, which saw a rise of 0.83 percent at 18:30. Despite these small gains, Stora Enso and Konecranes were among the biggest losers on Friday, falling more than 3 percent each at their close times respectively while YIT experienced the biggest drop of the day with its share falling by almost 5%.
Overall, despite some positive news from Purmo’s announcement and gains from other companies such as Kone and Kesko; The Helsinki Stock Exchange was characterized by fluctuations and mixed performances of different companies and sectors on Friday as YIT had recently announced plans to issue a bond with an interest rate close to or over almost 11%.
