Carmakers and real-estate companies led European stocks higher on Friday, paring their first weekly decline in three.
Auto-related shares rose the most among 19 industry groups, with Porsche SE climbing 2.4 percent after its board members were said to be cleared in a probe over a failed attempt to take over Volkswagen AG. French shopping-mall operator Klepierre SA added 2.5 percent. Commodity stocks retreated, with Glencore PLC falling 1 percent.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index advanced 0.4 percent to 388.12 at 8:32am in London, heading for a weekly drop of 2.3 percent.
The gauge posted its biggest two-day loss of the year earlier this week after China devalued its currency, before rebounding 1 percent yesterday. It has retreated 6.3 percent since an April record. The yuan stabilized on Friday after China’s central bank raised its reference rate and said it will intervene to prevent excessive swings.
In European news, Greek lawmakers approved a third bailout package in Athens, a vote tally showed.
Separately, data showed Germany’s economy grew at a slower-than-forecast pace in the second quarter, while France’s stagnated, compared with economists’ projections for 0.2 percent growth.
Among stocks moving on corporate news, Swiss Life Holding AG climbed 1.5 percent after posting first-half net income that beat estimates. Schindler Holding AG rose 0.9 percent after posting an increase in first-half profit.
Energy shares fell.
BP PLC declined 0.9 percent as it faces penalties after a US judge concluded that the energy producer manipulated markets in Texas in 2008.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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