A number of Swedish companies reported quarterly results, including cloud service company Sinch, forestry company Holmen, and security company Securitas.
Sinch surged 8.4 percent, while Holmen rose 7.6 percent. The report from Securitas, however, led to a 6.4 percent fall in the share price.
This morning, as expected, the Swedish Central Bank announced that the repo rate would remain unchanged.
Opened the door for a cut
The situation is uncertain when it comes to economic prospects in the shadow of the Trump administration's trade war, according to the Swedish Central Bank, whose board, however, with vague hints, opened the door for interest rate cuts later this year.
Not at all certain, emphasized the Swedish Central Bank's governor, Erik Thedéen, at a press conference.
The US Federal Reserve left its repo rate unchanged – at 4.25-4.50 percent – in a statement on Wednesday evening Swedish time.
The krona has weakened slightly against the euro ahead of Thursday's interest rate decision. One euro cost 10.92 kronor and one dollar cost 9.68 kronor. This can be compared to the dollar rate of 9.56 earlier in the week.
Bitcoin on the rise again
The demand for shares increased when Donald Trump said he had reached a "comprehensive" trade agreement with the UK. This came after the US and China booked a ministerial meeting on trade in Switzerland later in the week.
Cryptocurrency bitcoin is a winner when the market dares to take greater risks. The price was pushed down to $75,000 per bitcoin in connection with Donald Trump's tariff shock in early April. After the stock market closed, the price rose to over $100,000, a nearly 4 percent increase just on Thursday.
With Thursday's price increase, the Stockholm stock exchange is down 1.8 percent since the turn of the year.
With the exception of the FTSE index on the London Stock Exchange, the indices on the major European stock exchanges rose.
