European stocks posted the largest weekly gain in 14 months, paring a quarterly loss, as German backing for an enhanced eurozone rescue fund eased concern that policymakers will be unable to contain the debt crisis and US jobs and growth data beat forecasts.
The STOXX 600 Europe Index advanced 4.6 percent to 226.18 this week, the biggest gain since July last year. The measure still lost 17 percent in the third quarter, the most since the final period of 2008, which followed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc’s collapse.
The gauge has fallen for five straight months amid concern Greece’s debt crisis will spread to other countries in the region and as reports indicated a slowdown in the economy.
“German lawmakers’ positive vote as well as some good economic data coming from the other side of the pond were well received by market participants,” said Stephane Ekolo, chief European strategist at Market Securities in London.
Germany’s lower house of parliament approved the expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility’s firepower on Thursday, raising Germany’s guarantees to 211 billion euros (US$286 billion) from 123 billion euros.
Lawmakers in the Bundestag voted 523 in favor of the measure, while 85 voted against and three abstained.
The vote in Germany “supported the market this week,” said Guillaume Duchesne, an equity strategist at BGL BNP Paribas SA in Luxembourg. “Now we need confirmation of the political elements and positive economic elements for the trend to be sustainable.”
National benchmark indices rose in all of Western Europe’s 18 markets. France’s CAC 40 added 6.1 percent, the UK’s FTSE 100 climbed 1.2 percent and Germany’s DAX jumped 5.9 percent.
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],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
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