Stockmann on Thursday said it expects its adjusted operating profit for last year to exceed its earlier, zero-growth forecast. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)

CLASS-B SHARES in Stockmann jumped by more than 30 per cent yesterday after a positive profit warning issued by the iconic department store chain.

The Finnish retailer revealed yesterday morning that, based on preliminary data, it expects its adjusted operating profit for last year to exceed earlier forecasts due to the robust fourth-quarter performance of both Stockmann and Lindex.

The EU runs a trade surplus with itself of EUR 307 billion – a figure that should be zero if all transactions were properly reported and recorded. Measurement errors alone cannot account for this systematic deviation. Instead, one cause seems to be massive VAT fraud, which costs EU countries EUR 30–60 billion each year. This is the result of an empirical analysis jointly conducted by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) and the ifo Institute in Munich.

Nokia on Tuesday said it will cut up to 180 jobs in Finland by late 2020. (Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)

NOKIA on Tuesday announced it will begin consultative negotiations with its staff with a view to shedding up to 180 jobs in Finland.

The Espoo-headquartered network equipment manufacturer said the redundancies are to be made by year-end and affect all of its offices in the country, except for its fifth-generation mobile network (5G) product development staff and base station production staff in Oulu, North Ostrobothnia.

Helsinki-based Supercell’s Clash of Clans was the number-one game of the past decade by consumer spending, according to App Annie. (Handout – Supercell)

SUPERCELL’S Clash of Clans was the number-one game of the past decade by consumer spending, reports App Annie.

The Helsinki-based game developer was the only company to have two releases in the top-10, with consumers spending the 10th most money on Clash Royale, a real-time strategy game it published in March 2016.

Women in Games Finland’s constitutive meeting in March 2019

When we think of a gamer, it often connotes stereotypical imagery of the young white cis-het lad playing a shooter game amongst dirty socks and take-out boxes. Yet stereotypes are often outdated nonsense and the stupidity of generalising an entire group of people just because they share only one specific criterion is obvious. In fact, since the 2010s, statistics have shown that sex does not in any way indicate whether someone is more or less likely to play video games, with pretty much an even split.

FINLAND HAS LONG BEEN A FRONTRUNNER in the so-called ‘cashless revolution’, with card and mobile payments overtaking cash payments for the first time several years back. Across the EU, a total of 78% of all payments are made in cash. However, the reverse is true in Finland, where more than 80% of all payments are made via debit or online banking. 

As a percentage of the total of all payments in Finland, online payments are rapidly emerging as the most popular option, with the number of such payments growing by 28% in 2018.

Booms and busts, this is what investing in Bitcoin is all about. The most popular cryptocurrency continues to shake out investors. However, Bitcoin is not dead. And it looks like it won’t be anytime soon. But many investors wonder whether the price has already reached its zenith? Is Bitcoin still a good investment? Let’s find out!

Google searches can indicate investors' market sentiment and, thereby, also forecast market development. New study from the University of Vaasa, Finland reveals that small investors' Google searches are linked to future stock market returns.

– For example an increase in the volume of Google searches related to a decline in share prices predicts negative stock market returns for the following week, says Antti Klemola, who will be defending his doctoral dissertation at the University of Vaasa, Finland, on Thursday 21 November.

Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium, is closing down obsolete plants, as announced at the company presentation for the Investor Day in London recently. As company representatives explained, this decision is a part of Nornickel's updated environmental strategy.

Norilsk Nickel strives to ensure its environmental friendliness and reaffirms goals to reduce pollution.

Nokia’s performance in the 5G space has begun to stir up concerns among investors, industry analysts and the company’s employees. (Hector Retamal – AFP/Lehtikuva)

THE SITUATION of Nokia has sparked off concerns among not only industry analysts but also the employees and owners of the Finnish mobile network equipment supplier.

Lasse Laurikainen, a shop steward for senior salaried staff at the headquarters of Nokia in Espoo, told Bloomberg on Friday that the company’s management has been distracted by disagreements over priorities and staffing since the acquisition of Franco-American Alcatel-Lucent in 2016.