European shares advanced on Friday on hopes that possible action on interest rates and mortgage insurance could help limit the damage to the global economy from problems in the US housing sector.
The UK FTSE-100 rose 1.5 percent to 6,303.30, the German DAX-30 gained 1.6 percent to 7,638.17 and the French CAC-40 gained 1.3 percent to 5,662.70.
They were led by companies with ties to the commodities sector, like steelmaker ArcelorMittal, mining giant Rio Tinto and oil producer Royal Dutch Shell. ArcelorMittal rose 2.8 percent, Rio Tinto gained 3.7 percent and Royal Dutch Shell added 1.4 percent.
US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank would be paying "particularly close attention to the timeliest indicators" to assess how the recent credit crisis and financial market turmoil is affecting the real economy.
Drew Matus, an economist at Lehman Brothers, said that the speech didn't commit to any rate action, but Bernanke showed the Fed wasn't "out of touch." Also, the Bush administration announced a plan to help stem mortgage defaults.
Shares in French luxury-goods firm PPR advanced 4.1 percent after saying that its first-half net income nearly tripled following strong performance from luxury brands Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent and YSL Beaute.
Millennium BCP shares added 3.9 percent on a Portuguese television report that its chief executive, Paulo Teixerira Pinto, has quit. He has been in a power struggle with the bank's chairman after the firm failed to take control of Banco BPI earlier this year.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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