Best global performers last week include an energy stock
Global stocks fell in the past week, tracking losses on Wall Street as investors fled markets on the Federal Reserve’s commitment to its rate hiking plan to tame inflation. The MSCI World index fell around 5%, even worse than major indexes on Wall Street. The Dow notched a new low for the year and closed below 30,000 for the first time since June 17 — 1.62% down. The S & P 500 slid 1.72%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.8%. However, there were stocks in the MSCI World index that outperformed the wider market. These were the 12 best-performing stocks in the MSCI World index that saw gains of more than 5% last week, as of the close on Sept. 23. But two stocks stood out, beating the wider losses by a mile. One is Fortum , a Finnish energy company, which says it focuses on cleaner energy production. It soared 25.6% last week. The firm earlier this month said it had secured a bridging loan with Finnish government investment company Solidium for 2.35 billion euros ($2.34 billion) to cover soaring collateral needs, according to Reuters. That development is taking place amid an energy crisis in Europe after Russia shut down the major Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. Fortum also announced in mid-September that it was planning to add 560 megawatt capacity to the Nordic power market after October by reactivating an idle coal-fired power plant on Finland’s west coast, according to Reuters. It’s a favorite among majority of analysts covering the stock, with 67% rating it a buy, according to FactSet. They gave it an average target price of 16.01 euros, or an upside of around 15%. The other stock that was one of the top-performing last week is Swedish security firm Securitas , which jumped 16.3%. The world’s biggest-listed security services provider earlier reported a slightly bigger-than-expected rise in second-quarter profit — boosted by demand from recovering airport security in Europe.
