European exchanges posted strong gains on Friday on new mergers and acquisitions talk and an upbeat start to the trading day on Wall Street.
In London the FTSE 100 index gained 0.94 percent to close at 6,640.90 points, its highest level since Sept. 8, 2000.
In Paris the CAC 40 gained 1.23 percent to 6,101.14 points, its highest level since November 2000, while in Frankfurt the DAX gained 1.44 percent to end the day at 7,607.54 points, its highest for seven years.
Across the 13-nation eurozone, the Euro STOXX 50 gained 1.18 percent to end at 4,480.81 percent.
US stocks raced higher in opening trades as another flurry of corporate dealmaking activity boosted buying sentiment going into the weekend.
Japanese share prices ended the week on a downbeat note however, falling for a second day as investors awaited a slew of banking results for fresh leads, dealers said.
In London the price of shares in Royal Dutch Shell climbed 2.53 percent to £19.06 and energy peer BP rose 2.02 percent to £5.82 on higher oil prices and amid vague talk of a tie-up between the pair.
British confectionery and soft drink giant Cadbury Schweppes gained 1.71 percent to £6.85 on talk of a possible private-equity bid for its US beverage arm worth £8 billion (US$15.8 billion), dealers said.
In Paris Total also benefited from the higher price of oil, gaining 2.91 percent to 56.19 euros.
EADS jumped 3.34 percent to 23.50 euros on reports that Dubai International Capital is considering taking a stake in the European defense company.
"This is driving the shares, although it was already a topic a couple of months ago," said one trader, who wished to remain anonymous.
In Frankfurt, engineering giant Siemens gained 4.13 percent to 92.54 euros, while chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer gained 3.46 percent to 51.2 euros.
Elsewhere in Europe there were rises of 0.97 percent to 536.69 in Amsterdam and 0.72 percent to 9,424.69 on the Swiss Market Index, while in Madrid the IBEX 35 rose 0.67 percent to 15,068.40 points and in Brussels share prices on the BEL 20 index rose 1.26 percent to 4,749.45.
In Milan shares on the SP/MIB rose 0.91 percent to 44,364 points.
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