WEEKLY UPDATE – Stocks in Stockholm dived Friday on poor US job figures and concerns over Hungary's "very grave situation”.

• Swedish bank SEB turns to Asian equities
• Swedes fear euro adoption would hurt business

Stocks in Stockholm registered modest gainsat in Friday morning trading following an upbeat week. But worse-than-expected US payroll data, indicating a lack of confidence in the recovery that may lead to slower economic growth, made stocks plunge in the afternoon.

Investors also remain nervous over the economy of the eurozone, and of Spain in particular. Hungary is also in a “very grave situation” because the previous government manipulated figures and lied about the economy, a spokesman for the country's Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Bloomberg.

“The jobs report was not good,” James Paulsen, as chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, told the newswire. “It feeds the fears and lack of confidence of investors about the global economy. We already have concern about the European credit crisis. The combination will certainly make investors sell stocks today.”

The OMX Stockholm 30 closed down 1.74 percent in Friday afternoon trading. Compared to a week ago the index was up 1 percent, after having contracted almost 7 percent the last four weeks.

SEB, Sweden's third-largest bank by market value, plans to reduce its investments in European equities and instead put its money in Asia. The bank expects Asian stocks to outperform the European markets during the coming year.

Still, Sweden’s economy seems to be rising from the ashes of the global economic downturn. Export of goods from Sweden increased last quarter for the first time since the financial crisis caused world trade to plunge, the statistics office said Wednesday.

Scandinavian airline SAS dived 6 percent during the week despite its chief executive Mats Jansson told Norwegian daily Finansavisen that the airline was "about to make a comeback". Janssons upbeat forecast was based on signs of improved traffic numbers and higher ticket prices, following a trend at other major European airlines.

Shares in Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca was down slightly Friday after the company said it was seeking European approval to sell Axanum, a drug combining aspirin and the active ingredient in its stomach acid reflux drug Nexium, following a setback for the product in the United States.

Ericsson, Atlas Copco and Autoliv rose in Friday morning trading after being upgraded by differens investment banks.

Telephone catalogue and search engine firm Eniro dives 31 percent Tuesday. The company warned that its organic growth this year is likely to be lower than previously expected. The firm also warned about a potential massive back tax in Norway. Analysts now speculates that Eriro may be forced into a rights issue in order to raise cash.

Investment bank HQ Bank dropped 4.4 percent Monday after its CEO Mikael König stepped down following a trading operations fiasco.

Since the turn of the year the OMX Stockholm 30 index is up 3.86 percent.

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