VIENNA (dpa-AFX) – The Vienna Stock Exchange ended the session on Friday with significant price gains. The leading index ATX started the weekend with a premium of 1.82 percent to 3422.46 points, closing above the 3400 point mark for the first time since August 2018. Positive specifications from the USA and Asia already ensured a good mood in early trading. A strong performance by bank stocks provided additional tailwind for the domestic equity barometer.
In the past few days, increasing concerns about inflation had caused a gloomy mood on the stock exchanges, but statements by a senior representative of the US Federal Reserve have recently been able to reassure investors somewhat. That had already caused a recovery on Wall Street on Thursday, which continued today and also gave the Vienna market another boost in the afternoon.
The US economic data that was released fell short of expectations. US retail sales disappointed in April. They stagnated in a month-on-month comparison, but analysts had expected an average increase of 1.0 percent.
The US industry remained on a recovery path in April – total production rose by 0.7 percent compared to March – but here too analysts had expected more significant growth of 1.0 percent on average. The consumer climate surveyed by the University of Michigan has surprisingly clouded over. Michigan sentiment fell 5.5 points from the previous month to 82.8 points. Economists, however, had expected an increase to 90.0 points.
In Vienna, price-relevant reports remained in short supply on Friday, and analysts also remained silent on window day. The price gains occurred across the board, but it was primarily the banking stocks that were strong across Europe that pulled the ATX up towards the end of the week.
Erste Group went out of trading at the top of the price winners, the shares climbed 3.79 percent. Addiko Bank also rose 2.26 percent. BAWAG improved by 1.88 percent, Raiffeisen Bank International rose by 1.50 percent.
Oil stocks were also among the bigger winners. Schoeller-Bleckmann took a premium of 2.90 percent with them into the weekend. Index heavyweight OMV rose 2.34 percent, although stocks started the session on a negative note. In addition, Verbund also went up by 2.38 percent. And investors in the Vienna Insurance Group (plus 1.94 percent) and UNIQA (plus 1.66 percent) were also able to look forward to an increase.
Construction stocks closed weaker. Porr lost 1.05 percent, Strabag fell 0.96 percent. The shares of Telekom Austria were light in the prime market. They ended trading 1.13 percent lower.
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