European stocks rose for a fourth week, the longest stretch of gains in two months, boosted by Chinese economic data and assurances from the US Federal Reserve that its stimulus program remains flexible.
BHP Billiton Ltd and Rio Tinto Group climbed more than 3.5 percent after the world’s largest mining companies each reported an increase in iron ore output. Carrefour SA surged 8.1 percent as sales in the French retailer’s home market stabilized. Banco Popolare SC and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC led a rally in financial shares.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index advanced 1.2 percent to 299.85 this week, the highest level since May.
The STOXX 600 has still declined 3.5 percent from a near five-year high on May 22 amid speculation the Fed will begin tapering bond purchases as soon as September. The benchmark measure has climbed 7.2 percent this year.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, giving evidence to the US House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, said the US central bank’s quantitative easing (QE) program is “by no means on a preset course” and bond purchases could be reduced more quickly or expanded as economic conditions warrant.
“The markets put a dovish spin on Bernanke’s testimony to Congress,” KCG Europe Ltd strategist Ioan Smith said. “In the end he didn’t say anything new, but the lack of any definitive signals on the timing of QE tapering gave stocks a boost.”
Minutes from the Bank of England’s July 3 to July 4 meeting released this week showed officials voted unanimously to maintain the central bank’s £375 billion (US$572 billion) stimulus program.
European equities climbed on Monday as a report showed China’s GDP expanded 7.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier. That matched the median economist forecast in a Bloomberg survey and Beijing’s target rate for this year.
National benchmark indices climbed in 13 of the 18 western European markets this week. The UK’s FTSE 100 gained 1.3 percent, France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.8 percent and Germany’s DAX jumped 1.5 percent.
A gauge of basic-resources companies advanced 4.3 percent for the best performance among 19 industry groups in the STOXX 600. Rio Tinto climbed 4.2 percent after posting a 7 percent increase in second-quarter iron ore production and raising its forecast for full-year copper output.
BHP rose 3.9 percent as the world’s largest miner reported a 17 percent increase in fourth-quarter iron-ore production, beating the median analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
Carrefour jumped 8.1 percent in Paris after France’s biggest retailer said sales at stores open at least a year were unchanged as stronger demand in Latin America helped cushion a drop in Europe in the second quarter. A decline of 1.1 percent in domestic revenue beat the consensus estimate of a 1.8 percent slide, according to Citigroup Inc.
A gauge of banks rose 3.3 percent as the European Central Bank altered its collateral rules for refinancing banks and said it’s looking at ways to boost lending to small and medium-sized companies by changing the eligibility of asset-backed securities.
Banco Popolare rose 12 percent in Milan, RBS rallied 11 percent in London amd Commerzbank AG, Germany’s second-largest lender, surged 9.2 percent for the biggest gain in 10 months.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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