WEEKLY UPDATE – Stocks in Sweden rose during the week as US unemployment dropped and Greece debt concerns diminished.

The OMX Stockholm 30 index was up almost 5 percent in Friday morning trading compared to a week ago.

Stocks rose Friday after a report the previous day said weekly jobless claims dropped in the United States, defusing concern that America’s recovery is slowing.

Investors also gained confidence as Greece debt concerns diminished and the troubled country began selling 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) of 10-year bonds. Stocks also gained on hopes that the Japanese central bank will ease monetary policy further.

“Some of the concern has blown out, mainly on the back of positive US statistics”, Anders Berg, head of Capital Markets at Evli Bank in Stockholm, told The Swedish Wire. “We believe stocks will gain. But this year will be more volatile than last year.”

Sweden’s central bank governor Stefan Ingves said Thursday that “the economic recovery is now resting on more solid ground” and echoed the Riksbank’s intentions to hike its key interest rate this summer.

Defense firm Saab, maker of the Gripen fighter jet, rallied almost 5 percent Friday morning after Investor AB said it would double its ownership in the company. Also Investor rose.

Lundin Petroleum rose 1.90 percent Thursday after announcing its intentions to spin-off its UK business into a newly-formed entity called Enquest plc in exchange for a 55 percent stake in the latter.

Sandvik, the world's largest maker of metal-cutting tools, rose the same day after raised recommendations by Carnegie.

Since the turn of the year the OMX Stockholm 30 index is up 3.60 percent.

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