European stocks rose to a four-week high amid optimism the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) stimulus would fill some of the gap left by the end of US Federal Reserve bond buying.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index gained 1.8 percent to 336.8 at the close of trading on Friday, boosting its weekly advance to 2.9 percent, the most this year. Barclays PLC and BNP Paribas SA led lenders higher, as all 19 industry groups on the gauge climbed.
The equity benchmark dropped 1.8 percent last month, the most since June last year, amid concern that the European Central Bank’s (ECB) asset purchases would not be enough to revive the region’s economy. With the US Federal Reserve ending purchases this month, investors are turning to Europe and Japan for sustained support.
The BOJ unexpectedly boosted its stimulus, raising its annual target for monetary expansion to ￥80 trillion (US$717 billion), up from ￥60 trillion to ￥70 trillion.
“Markets don’t really seem to care about what kind of stimulus we get or where it’s coming from, as long we get something,” said Teis Knuthsen, chief investment officer at Saxo Bank A/S’s private-banking unit.
“Central banks are trying to squeeze money into the system and as long as economic growth is good enough, all that money will be going into financial assets. What happened in Japan is very powerful for equities, and it’s really rippling throughout global markets,” Knuthsen added.
Investors weighed a report that showed euro-area inflation increased this month for clues about the ECB’s policy stance at its meeting next week. The central bank aims to take inflation closer to 2 percent, while the rate has stayed below 1 percent for a year.
Benchmark indices in 16 of the 18 Western European markets rose on Friday. The UK’s FTSE 100 gained 1.3 percent, while France’s CAC 40 advanced 2.2 percent. Germany’s DAX rallied 2.3 percent.
Barclays rallied 8.2 percent to ￡2.408 for its biggest increase since February last year, after saying it is confident of reaching the leverage ratio set by the Bank of England. The central bank on Friday set a minimum level of 4.05 percent from 2019, lower than analysts estimated.
BNP Paribas rose 3.5 percent to 50.14 euros after posting an 11 percent gain in third-quarter profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates. Net income was 1.5 billion euros (US$1.89 billion), up from 1.36 billion euros a year earlier, the lender said. Loan-loss provisions fell 9.2 percent.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS