STOCK MARKET – The report season has kicked off in a positive direction and Swedish stocks are expected to gain during the upcoming weeks, analyst said.

The Stockholm stock exchange was up almost 2.7 percent compared to a week ago on Friday afternoon as the report season kicked off with happy news from across the Atlantic.

On Wednesday Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, reported an unexpected third-quarter profit, leading to joyful leaps at the world’s stock markets. With branches all over the world and customers in the early stage of the production chains the aluminum producer is considered an important barometer for world economy.

“What Alcoa said sounded very positive”, Martin Guri, equity strategist at Nordea, told The Swedish Wire.

He expects the upcoming weeks to be in good spirits as analysts and investors are shifting view from macro economic statistics to company reports and outlooks.

“It’s probably going to be a strong month. But people might also take the opportunity to sell off stocks”, he said, adding that he expects the Stockholm exchange to gain another 7 – 10 percent before the turn of the year.

It’s been a shaky week for Swedish banks as the Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis began drafting legislation designed to protect cash-strapped homeowners from banks out to repossess properties. The plan, which sparked new speculation that the Baltic State may be forced to devalue its euro-pegged currency, was seriously criticized – even by Latvia's central bank.

“It’s just a political game. No sane person would carry out such a plan”, Martin Guri said. “The comments from Latvian have been overinterpreted in international media”.

On Friday Swedbank, Nordea and SEB rose sharply as Latvia loomed closer to ending the disagreement with its international donors, including Sweden and the International Monetary Fund.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Thursday the central bank will tighten monetary policy when the outlook for the economy “has improved sufficiently”. However, Martin Guri don’t think his comments will have much of an impact on markets as fiscal stimuli won’t be removed until the economy is more stable than it is today.

Since the turn of the year OXM Stockholm 30 is up 36 percent.

This article has been published at The Swedish Wire and Nasdaq OMX Nordic.