The stock market is rising on a broad front in line with leading European stock exchanges, even though heavy large bank shares are slowing down development.

Shortly after two o'clock, the OMXS index has risen 1.5 percent and is thus above the level at the turn of the year - even though there is almost a seven percent price increase left to the historical top level the stock market was at before the crash that began at the end of February.

Positive vaccine news

Risk appetite generally increases since the American vaccine manufacturer Moderna published research progress with a vaccine against covid-19. Extra traction comes after the British television station ITV reported that there is positive vaccine news about the covid-19 vaccine that Astra Zeneca is involved in developing in Oxford.

Astra Zeneca's share rises by 4.7 percent.

However, the mood is dampened by signs of a continued deterioration in relations between the world's two largest economies: the United States and China, where there is now talk of sanctions from both sides due to the controversial Chinese security law introduced in Hong Kong.

Quarterly Reports

Trading on the Stockholm Stock Exchange is also characterized by quarterly reports.

Handelsbanken reports an unexpectedly strong result for the second quarter of the year. But the profit is pushed down considerably by a lower interest rate situation and the result is unexpectedly high, mainly due to the lowest credit losses in many years. The stock is down 2.2 percent.

The reporting competitor SEB also has difficulty asserting itself in the stock market rise. The SEB share falls 2.3 percent. Unlike Handelsbanken, SEB set unexpectedly large amounts for feared credit losses in the second quarter, and the result is instead strengthened by a large contribution from trading gains.

Lundin Energy's share declines 0.4 percent despite the oil company flagging an exchange rate gain of approximately $ 131 million (equivalent to SEK 1.2 billion) in the second quarter of the year.

The share in Byggmax has risen 2.2 percent since the construction trade chain reported a record quarter in the corona crisis, with the best sales and profit results for a single quarter for the company ever.

Tele2's owners can be pleased with a strong interim report for the second quarter and that the company has decided to reintroduce a proposal for an extra dividend, which raises the share by 3.8 percent.