Fears of deepening fiscal woes in Greece and off-putting macroeconomic data makes Swedish investors secure profits and flee to less risky assets.

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Global markets were under pressure Thursday as credit agencies warned of further downgrades to Greece, which could hurt the country's efforts to tackle its debt crisis.

Markets also shuddered after the US Labor Department said new claims for US jobless benefits jumped to a three-month high, underscoring ongoing struggles for the labor market and the economic recovery. Analysts said that if the jobs picture fails to improve, that could spell trouble for the recovery from recession.

Earning outlooks for 2010 have been positive and stocks on the Stockholm exchange have been expected to continue up after last year's rally of 45 percent. But the OMX Stockholm 30 index is still flat compared to its level at year change.

“Swedish stocks have uninterruptedly increased for more than a year, and many investors have made a lot of money. Now we start to hear warning signals”, said Johan Tidestad, head of the Nordic regions largest online stockbroker Nordnet.

“There’s intense media attention on countries with troubled economy, such as Greece, Spain and Portugal. At the same time investors fear upcoming interest rate hikes by central banks”.

Swedish investors now show lower risk appetite and lower willingness to invest. During February Swedish fund savers dumped equity funds and turned to less risky interest funds, according to broker. Investors also sold stocks in order to secure profit.

Although most company earnings posted during February have been better than expected the reaction from investors has been downbeat.

“I believe that many investors feel it’s time to take a step back as the situation on the stock market is getting more and more wobbly”, said Johan Tidestad said.