The December US inflation figures released on Thursday afternoon completely met the consensus forecasts of economists. Inflation continued to slow down, and the market began to lean towards the US Federal Reserve’s next interest rate hike in February remaining at 25 interest points.
In Europe, the stock markets were on a clear rise on Thursday. The Helsinki Stock Exchange’s OMXH general index ended with a 0.8 percent increase to 11,287 points.
The most traded stock on the exchange was exceptionally a building technology company Caverion. Capital investor Bain Capital compiled by North Holdings 3 – consortium extended the offer period on Wednesday, but did not raise the offer price of another capital investor Triton’s despite a competing higher bid.
According to Bain’s representatives, Triton would not get through its offer without problems because it also owns Caverion’s competitor Assembly.
The Bain consortium’s original offer was EUR 7.00 per share, and Triton’s competing offer is EUR 8.00 per share. After Triton’s offer, Caverion’s price had risen to well over eight euros as investors anticipated the bidding process. On Thursday, Caverion’s share ended up down 1.1 percent to 7.95 euros.
Just before the stock market closed, Caverion announced that Triton had been flagged for exceeding the five percent ownership limit. Through its subsidiary, Triton owns 9.82 percent of Caverion’s shares.
Department store chain Stockmann’s the largest owner The Art Society and JC Switzerland Holding announced on Wednesday after the close of the stock market that they had concluded an agreement on exercising voting rights. The contract partners now represent a total of more than 15 percent of Stockmann’s voting power. JC Holding is a European chain of department stores Peek&Cloppenburgin and Magasin du Nordin owner. At the end of Thursday, Stockmann’s share was up 4.8 percent.
Developing electricity storage and quality technology Merus Power received an order for over a hundred active filters from its OEM partner in North America. The value of the corresponding delivery is typically just under one million euros, and the order is part of the previously announced framework agreement. The share price ended up with a 4.4 percent increase.
Construction companies SRV and Grove ended up with increases of 3.9 percent and 13.7 percent. Lehto agreed with eQ Asuntorahasto for a 50-apartment apartment building in Hakunila, Vantaa. Lehto’s share price has been moving wildly in recent weeks, mostly upwards.
SRV was chosen to implement the Lempäälä swimming pool construction project. The project is implemented as a cooperative project management contract, and SRV’s share of the project is approximately EUR 13 million.
A software company of the Qt Group a block trade of nearly five million euros was made with the shares on Thursday, which roughly corresponds to the share’s average daily turnover in recent weeks. Qt’s share ended up with a 1.5 percent increase to 48.44 euros, well above the block deal price of 47.62 euros per share.