European stocks were propelled higher on Friday as oil majors saw renewed buying interest and mining stocks advanced as analysts pointed to further price hikes for iron ore.
The expiration of September derivatives contracts across Europe and Wall Street known as "triple witching" was relatively calm. One UK-based derivatives trader commented "the event is not the catalyst for volatility that it used to be."
At 3:55pm GMT, the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index, which tracks Europe's 600 largest listed companies, was up 0.6 percent at 241.22. The Dow Jones Euro STOXX Index, which tracks companies in countries that joined the common currency, was 0.7 percent higher at 28.29.
Mining stocks sparkled from the start of trade Friday after Goldman Sachs JB Were said it expects a 20 percent increase in iron ore prices because of persistently strong Chinese steel demand.
Anglo American gained 2.6 percent to £12.96 while Rio Tinto advanced 2.7 percent to £14.48. BHP Billiton, the world's biggest mining company, pushed ahead 3.4 percent to £5.5625 pence, leading gainers in London.
Merger and acquisition news helped create pockets of interest among mid-sized UK retailers. The Big Food Group, which runs the Iceland supermarket chain, jumped 11.3 percent to £1.0275 after it said that it was in takeover talks that would value the company at £378 million (US$673 million).
Among telecommunications stocks, Cable & Wireless was the lead decliner in London for most of Friday's session.
Shares retreated 2.7 percent to £1.07 after it announced plans to invest up to £85 million (US$151 million), in high-speed Internet access over the next two years.
In Paris telecom-equipment maker Alcatel climbed 1.2 percent after it said it would buy US mobile-phone component producer Spatial Wireless for about US$250 million.
Energy stocks gained. Stocks were buoyed by higher crude oil prices as concerns continued over supply disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico due to hurricanes. The Gulf produces roughly 5 percent of the world's total crude oil output.
In Frankfurt, auto stocks were the lead decliners. CSFB downgraded the sector to underweight from market weight ahead of the Paris auto show next week.
It said sales in Europe and the US have deteriorated again during the summer. Europe's largest carmaker, Volkswagen, fell 1.0 percent to US$39.45, leading decliners in Frankfurt.
At the close, London's FTSE-100 Share Index was 0.8 percent higher at 4,591.0, while in Paris the CAC-40 Index was 0.93 percent higher at 3,726.22. Frankfurt's Xetra Dax Index was up 0.61 percent at 3,988.07.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by