Maritime Stocks Move Up

The Shipping Index at the Oslo Stock Exchange performed well in the quite summer month of July, rising 2.7 percent, and thus again lifting the maritime sector of shipping, offshore and cruise shares above the levels of year-end 1999. Within the sector, 29 shares rose during the month, while only 12 decreased in market value.

Among the offshore stocks, Nortrans Offshore (NOL) were again strong, as in May, after a 10 percent fall in June. With a rise of 23 percent it ended as the month's winner. Also Havila Supply (HAV) rebounded strongly from a rather poor June performance, while Northern Offshore (NOF) only continued its upward trend.

Also, stocks like Smedvig (SME and SMEB), Ocean Rig (OCR), TGS Nopec Geophysical (TGS), Farstad Shipping (FAR) and Stolt Offshore (SCS) performed well during the period.

Petrolia Drilling (PDR) fell by more than 10 percent during the month, followed by Brøvig (BRO) and Fred. Olsen Energy (FOE). Stolt Offshore A (SCSA) were down 4.3 percent in July, while Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) concludes the list by having dropped 0.7 percent.

Mosvold Shipping (MSL) tops the winners' list among shipping stocks with an impressive rise of 58 percent. I.M. Skaugen (SKA) and Nordic American Tanker (NAT) follow with increases of 15 and 11 percent respectively. Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL), Odfjell A (ODF) and Frontline (FRO) also experienced solid gains in July. Frontline is currently valued at a market capitalization of NOK 8.7 billion.

Only six shipping stocks were priced down by investors during the period. Western Bulk Shipping (WBS), Odfjell B (ODFB) and Jinhui Shipping (JIN) were among these. Loki (LOI), Nomadic Shipping (NOS) and Team Shipping (TSH) were all unchanged in July.