Sanoma Falls as Danske Sees Ad Market Shrinking: Helsinki Mover

Sanoma Oyj (SAA1V) fell the most in more than three weeks in Helsinki trading after Danske Bank A/S said investors should sell the stock because the Finnish publishing company’s advertisement markets are shrinking.

Sanoma fell as much as 1.8 percent, the most since Jan. 3. The stock retreated 1.1 percent to 7.54 euros at 1:06 p.m. in the Finnish capital with trading volume at 28 percent of the three-month daily average.

Chief Executive Officer Harri-Pekka Kaukonen said in October the Helsinki-based company was set to face “extremely challenging” market conditions in the fourth quarter. Danske said today it lowered its recommendation on the stock to sell from hold after analyzing Sanoma’s two biggest markets, the Netherlands and Finland, which make up about 75 percent of total advertisement sales.

“We expect advertising still to fall clearly in the first half of 2013,” Copenhagen-based Danske said in the note. The decline will reduce earnings “sharply, especially in the Netherlands, where Sanoma has lost market share and is spending more on program purchases,” Danske said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Wienberg in Copenhagen at cwienberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tasneem Brogger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net