European shares closed modestly higher on Friday after a solid jobs report for last month in the US and as shares in German banking powerhouse Commerzbank gained.
The German DAX Xetra 30 index ended up 0.29 percent at 6,241.15. The French CAC-40 index closed up 0.49 percent at 5,336.30. The UK's FTSE 100 index ended virtually flat at 6,148.10, pressured by declines in shares of British Airways and packaging group Rexam.
In the US, data showed the labor market is on a firmer footing than expected. Although US nonfarm payrolls grew by a lower-than-expected 92,000 last month, the unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent, its lowest level in more than five years.
Shares of Commerzbank ended up 4.3 percent after its third-quarter net profit exceeded expectations. The German bank also said it expects this year to be one of the best in its history.
Shares of insurance giant Allianz gave up earlier gains to finish down 0.7 percent. It posted a higher net profit from the sale of one of its units and after a good performance from its non-life business.
Shares of British Airways, Europe's third-largest airline, fell 3.4 percent after it said profit dropped 1.8 percent in the second quarter as tough security measures at Heathrow airport after summer terrorism scares cost the company.
Irish low-cost airline Ryanair said the number of passengers it carried last month rose 23 percent to 3.7 million. Load factor slipped to 83 percent from 85 percent a year ago. Shares rose 0.8 percent in London.
Shares in packaging company and can maker Rexam declined 4.4 percent. It expects to post flat profits for plastic-packaging operations in the second-half of the year.
Media company Publicis fell 1.6 percent in Paris after it reported organic sales growth of 2.6 percent in the third quarter, lower than in the first two quarters of the year.
"The dip in third-quarter growth has two contributing factors: the winding down of work on some accounts and the cancellation of certain campaigns during the summer," the company said.
Euronext shares climbed 4 percent in Paris after the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported the European stock exchange operator was in talks to sell its 41.5 percent stake in clearing house LCH.Clearnet back to the company.
Shares in food and household products group Unilever ended up almost 1 percent as the company was upgraded to neutral from underweight at J.P. Morgan, which said positive news could support the shares in the next six to nine months.
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