European shares lost ground on Friday as investors continued to worry about the impact of higher interest rates, while shares in French bank BNP Paribas rose after a report stirred up takeover hopes for the group.
The UK FTSE 100 index closed virtually unchanged at 6,505.10, the German DAX Xetra 30 index fell 0.4 percent to 7,590.50 and the French CAC-40 index slipped 0.1 percent to 5,883.29.
Equity markets have come under pressure as perceptions of interest rate levels have changed after indications of stronger-than-expected economic growth, particularly in the US. Most investors no longer expect the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this year and both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are expected to raise rates later in the year.
Gains of more than 1.1 percent from chipmakers Infineon Technologies and STMicroelectronics and a positive open on Wall Street weren't enough to lift European markets to a higher close.
Mining companies were mostly lower. Kazakhmys fell 1.4 percent, Vedanta Resources lost 2.5 percent and BHP Billiton dropped 1.4 percent.
French bank BNP Paribas managed to gain 1.5 percent in Paris after a report that Societe Generale has commissioned two banks, one of which is Morgan Stanley, to study two cases of a possible tie-up with peer BNP Paribas, French daily Les Echos reported, without citing sources.
UK retail bank Lloyds TSB Group said that it has continued to make strong progress in the first half of the year. Shares slipped 0.3 percent, just underperforming the broader London market.
Elsewhere in Europe, in Milan the SP/MIB fell 0.51 percent to 41,712 points, in Amsterdam the AEX lost 0.07 percent to 534.69 points and in Brussels the BEL 20 lost 0.08 percent to 4,507.90 points.
The Swiss SMI index fell 0.02 percent to 9,150.62 points, while the EuroSTOXX 50 index fell 0.11 percent to 4,376.42 points.
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],”