Judge Judy Fitzgerald this week backed ABB's plan to settle 130,000 lawsuits stemming from boilers made by its Combustion Engineering Inc unit. A US District Court judge must approve the settlement, which may also be appealed.
ABB chief executive officer Juergen Dormann has said settling the lawsuits will speed the sale of its oil-equipment unit, which faces 8,000 asbestos claims. The business may fetch as much as US$1.5 billion as the company seeks to cut its US$8.2 billion of debt.
Renault SA, France's second-largest carmaker, added 2.7 percent to 48.29 euros, for an increase of 1.6 percent this week.
The company, along with Toyota Motor Corp, the world's third-biggest, led a 2.9 percent gain in June auto sales in Western Europe, boosted by the introduction of new models and incentives.
Renault's new Megane Scenic models won customers in France.
"Renault's performance shows how critically important it is to bring out new models in this extremely competitive environment," said Arndt Ellinghorst, an analyst at WestLB, who has a neutral rating on Renault.
Auto sales advanced to 1.32 million vehicles from a year earlier, according to the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association, ACEA. It's the first rise since March.
Luxury goods
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the world's largest luxury-goods maker, rose 4 percent to 46.70 euros, bringing this week's gain to 5.9 percent, after Gucci Group NV CEO Domenico De Sole said demand for luxury goods revived in the past two months as shoppers in Asia returned to stores.
"We see a dramatic improvement in retail operations in May and most importantly in the month of June," he said in a televised interview. Pinault-Printemps-Redoute SA, the French department-store operator that owns 63 percent of Gucci, added 2.8 percent to 65.9 euros.
It's up 4.4 percent for the week.
RSS