European shares posted mixed results on Friday after trading in negative territory for most of the day, with many investors focused on a takeover bid for Scandinavian stock exchange operator OMX by the US NASDAQ market.
London's FTSE 100 index of blue chip shares closed 0.08 percent higher at 6,570.50 points.
In Paris the CAC 40 added 0.15 percent to 6,057.49 and Frankfurt's DAX 30 rose by 0.54 percent to 7,739.20 points.
In Stockholm, OMX shares leapt by 10.83 percent to 199.5 kronor after NASDAQ agreed a bid for the Scandinavian stock exchange operator worth 25.1 billion kronor (US$3.7 billion).
The OMX deal, subject to shareholder approval, marked the second transatlantic stock market alliance in two months, following the acquisition of the main European market Euronext by the New York Stock Exchange.
Back in London, shares in the independent television broadcaster ITV closed with a gain of 3.93 percent at 119.10 pence after leaping by almost 6.0 percent in intra-day trades.
Market rumors said that the media group BSkyB has sold its holding in ITV to the RTL group, which would leave open the possibility of an offer for all of ITV.
No confirmation was available of the rumors, which came a day after Britain's Department of Trade and Industry said it had referred BSkyB's part purchase of ITV to the country's Competition Commission.
In Frankfurt, shares in German-US automaker DaimlerChrysler gained 1.83 percent to 67.20 euros, with investment funds buying the stock following the sale of Chrysler to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, dealers said.
In Amsterdam, the AEX index slipped by 0.10 percent to 535.48 points, the Swiss SMI was up by 0.26 percent at 9,381.34, in Milan the SP/MIB added 0.18 percent to 43,019, in Madrid the IBEX-35 gave up 0.28 percent to 15,053.20 and in Brussels the BEL-20 closed 0.70 percent lower at 4,671.71.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS