Helsinki, May 29, 2026, 11:11 (EEST)
- Nokia traded at 12.96 euros, down 2.74%, in Friday morning Helsinki trade, underperforming the OMX Helsinki 25 index.
- The pullback followed two weak U.S. sessions for Nokia’s American depositary receipts, the U.S.-traded certificates that represent foreign shares.
- The stock is still being judged against a faster AI data-centre growth story after Nokia raised its 2026 Network Infrastructure sales outlook.
Nokia shares fell again on Friday, slipping more than the wider Finnish market as investors cut exposure after a sharp AI-led rally in the telecoms equipment maker.
The stock was down 2.74% at 12.96 euros at 11:09 a.m. in Helsinki, with the day’s low at 12.93 euros. The OMX Helsinki 25, a price index of the 25 most actively traded Helsinki shares, was down 0.65% at 6,467.15.
That matters now because Nokia’s equity story has moved fast. The company is no longer being traded only as a 5G equipment supplier exposed to slow telecom spending; investors have recast it as a play on artificial-intelligence data centres, where fibre-optic and IP networks carry heavy traffic between servers.
The turn lower began in New York. Nokia’s American depositary receipts fell 4.74% on Wednesday and another 2.55% on Thursday, ending at $15.28 and moving further below the 52-week high touched earlier in the week.
The company gave investors the fuel for the rally in April. Nokia said first-quarter comparable operating profit, its adjusted operating-profit measure, rose 54% to 281 million euros, beating the 250 million euros expected by analysts polled by Infront. Sales to AI and cloud customers rose 49%, and the company booked 1 billion euros of orders from those customers.
Chief Executive Justin Hotard said Nokia was “increasing our growth assumption” for Optical and IP Networks and investing to catch demand from AI and cloud customers. Nokia raised its 2026 Network Infrastructure sales growth forecast to 12%-14%, from an earlier 6%-8% range. Nokia Corporation | Nokia
Morgan Stanley kept the bull case alive this week, raising its Nokia price target to 14 euros from 11 euros and calling the stock its top pick for AI data-centre networking exposure. Analysts led by Terence Tsui wrote that “potential new orders can have an outsized effect” when revenue starts from a low base. Investing.com
There is still a split view. SEB Bank upgraded Nokia to buy on Thursday, while MarketScreener data showed a 23-analyst average target price of 9.375 euros, below the prior Helsinki close of 13.32 euros.
The competitive read-through is less about Ericsson and more about Ciena, the optical-networking specialist. Jefferies has said Nokia’s Infinera deal came as AI data-centre demand for optical networking was rising sharply, giving the combined business stronger ground against market leader Ciena.
There was also an insider signal in the background. Nokia Chief Development Officer Konstanty Owczarek bought 37,405 ADRs on May 26 at just under $16 each, a purchase worth about $600,000, after an earlier buy worth about $500,000 on May 22, Finwire reported via MarketScreener.
But the trade can still go the other way. Nokia said Fixed Networks sales fell 13% in the first quarter, lead times across the AI supply chain were extending, and some new optical products will not start sampling until mid-2027, with volume production only in the second half of that year. If hyperscalers — the large cloud companies building AI data centres — slow spending, or if orders slip into later quarters, the market may have little patience after such a fast re-rating.
For Friday, the move looked less like a fresh company warning and more like a check on price. The AI case has strengthened. The stock, for now, has to prove it did not run too far ahead of the numbers.
