European markets were mixed but generally higher on Friday, with London shares firmer as strong gains by Rolls-Royce helped offset fears of rising interest rates in the US, dealers said.
London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares gained 0.21 percent to 5,759.3 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 firmed 0.20 percent to 4,937.56 and Frankfurt's DAX 30 added 0.13 percent to 5,657.12 points. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares was stable at 3,678.48 points.
As European markets closed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by 0.33 percent at 10.816.52 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite had fallen by 0.68 percent to 2,266.07 points.
US investors reacted to a mixed but generally positive jobs report that suggested the US Federal Reserve would likely raise interest rates again.
European investor sentiment was lifted on Friday by energy news, with New York crude futures rising above US$65 per barrel.
High oil prices generally boost the price of shares in energy companies, which often has the effect of lifting stock market indices.
In Paris, Veolia rose 0.66 percent to 42.50 euros after a positive full-year sales report from the French utility services group.
Oil major Total saw its shares gain 0.59 percent to 223 euros.
The share price of Arcelor, meanwhile, jumped 4.06 percent to 30.53 euros after chief executive Guy Dolle said the company might ally with a smaller partner to fend off Mittal Steel's hostile bid.
In an interview published in French daily Les Echos, Dolle was reported as saying that an industrial alliance with a smaller steel company had possibilities.
In London, shares in the engineering group Rolls-Royce benefited from positive sector sentiment, leaping 3.43 percent to £4.4475.
Kingfisher saw its shares plunge 3.97 percent to £2.30 however, after broker Credit Suisse downgraded its earnings forecasts for the biggest home-improvement retailer in Europe.
Shares in energy group Centrica ran into profit-taking after rocketing the day before by as much as 25 percent on reported interest from state-owned Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Centrica shares lost 2.25 percent to £2.9325 after the British government warned in a statement that a Gazprom takeover bid would face regulatory scrutiny.
Meanwhile, British Airways plunged 2.55 percent to £3.1575, despite posting an 8.6 percent increase in third-quarter pre-tax profits to £164 million (US$291.2 million).
In Frankfurt, however, shares in German rival Lufthansa shot up by 1.91 percent to 13.36 euros.
In Amsterdam, the AEX index gained 0.19 percent to 451.27 points, the Swiss SMI added 0.70 percent to 7.840.79, in Milan the SP/MIB slipped 0.18 percent to 36,408, in Madrid the IBEX-35 rose 0.36 percent to 11,175.8 and in Brussels the BEL-20 closed essentially unchanged at 3,766.43.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”