European shares ended lower on Friday as the euro hit an all-time high against the greenback after weak US growth data, with oil producers leading the downturn. Spanish property stocks continued to decline.
The UK FTSE 100 index declined 0.8 percent to 6,418.70, the German DAX Xetra 30 index lost 0.1 percent to 7,378.12 and the French CAC-40 index slipped 0.2 percent to 5,930.77.
"There's a bit of profit taking with investors repositioning away from possible bubble stocks and economies such as Spain," said Andrew Lynch, a European fund manager at Schroder Investment Management.
Spain's IBEX-35 index fell 1.4 percent to end at 14,403.60, with Grupo Immarcal dropping 2.3 percent in what has been a disastrous week for Spanish property and construction stocks.
Lynch added that the currency market is having a bit of an impact on equities, with the euro continuing to trade over US$1.36 against the dollar, rising as high as US$1.3682 after the US economic data.
"This could put a crimp in earnings growth for exporters," said Lynch. Of exporting autos companies, BMW shares lost 1.3 percent and Volkswagen shares slipped 0.8 percent.
French automaker Peugeot, however, rose 0.9 percent after the company said late on Thursday it will cut 4,800 jobs this year. It also reported improving revenue.
Oil companies were lower, with Statoil down 2.3 percent after making a US$2 billion acquisition of a Canadian oil sands producer. BP dropped 1.7 percent and Royal Dutch Shell fell 1.3 percent.
Brewer Scottish & Newcastle rose 6.8 percent as a fundraising move by Danish brewer Carlsberg sparked further deal hopes in the European brewing sector. Carlsberg finished flat.
Dutch bank ABN Amro was up 1.2 percent after a consortium including Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander and Fortis said they intend to launch an unsolicited bid for ABN Amro. Earlier in the week ABN Amro agreed to be bought by Barclays, shares of which rose 1 percent in London.
Royal Bank of Scotland shares dipped 1.5 percent, Santander shares lost 2.4 percent and Fortis shares declined 1.7 percent.
Banco Santander also said first-quarter net profit rose 20.7 percent, topping analyst forecasts due to strong growth in net interest income and fees.
Shares in Deutsche Post climbed 5.3 percent and Deutsche Postbank rose 2.3 percent in Frankfurt, buoyed by takeover speculation.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day