Karri Salmi was surprised, because Finns still prefer the stock, which has been snowed in – “the market is going through a phase of euphoria”

Finnish private investors’ views on economic development have weakened considerably, but the majority of investors have increased their stock investments over the past six months, according to the recent investor barometer of Suomen Osakesäästätijen and Pörssisaätiö.

“The stock market is going through a sort of euphoric phase, in the sense that perhaps they want to turn a blind eye to certain realities and risks”, CEO of Suomen Osakesæstätäjie Karri Strait says.

Strong faith in the price increase

According to the barometer, only 12 percent of the respondents believe that the Finnish economy will grow in the next six months, while 40 percent estimate that it will shrink. The outlook for the global economy is also gloomy. Still, 40 percent of respondents believe that rates will rise in the next six months.

In Salmi’s opinion, it is surprising that the uncertain economic situation has not, according to the barometer, collapsed investment sentiment, even though the underlying factors include geopolitical tensions, interest rate prospects and declining consumer confidence.

58 percent of the respondents have increased domestic stock exchange shares and 43 percent of the respondents have increased foreign shares.

“Investors have a reasonably strong belief that the stock market will continue to rise and are ready to increase stock investments.”

Domestic stocks dominate

52 percent of respondents currently invest mainly in domestic stock exchange stocks, and 91 percent of all respondents own them. At the top of the most interesting domestic companies are Nordea, In this, Sampo, Wärtsilä and Commandment.

“Nordea is overwhelmingly at the top there. There are twice as many mentions as the next company, Neste.”

Also Confused, Bittium and Konecranes have been of recent interest. For example, Bittium received a total of 132 mentions. Instead UPM, Qt Group and Kemira have lost relative popularity.

“From the defense side Bittium has clearly elevated its positions, and it is slowly being discovered. Even though it is still a reasonably small company, it is among the top teams. Qt Group again, it is clearly in a downward direction, because its growth story has been frozen for quite some time,” explains Salmi.

Nvidia came back on top

Among the foreign stocks, the most interesting are Nvidia, Novo Nordisk, Investor, Microsoft and Alphabet.

“I think it’s quite surprising that Novo Nordisk is still in second place, even though it has been snowed in quite a lot,” commented Salmi.

The Danish pharmaceutical company is recently took a back packbut according to Salmi, the company has remained the talk of investors. Nvidia rose back to the top over Novo Nordisk, which previously led the list.

Interest in US technology companies also seems to be on the rise again.

“Nvidia came back to the top. Completely new techno giants supported by artificial intelligence have also entered the lists.”

As new technology companies, the list of the most interesting have included, among others Micron Technology and TSMC.

Story edited on April 24, 2026 at 5:56 p.m.: Clarified that Nvidia came back to the top over Novo Nordisk, which previously led the list.