European stocks rose with mining companies amid investor confidence that central banks’ willingness to support global growth would bear fruit.
Anglo American and Glencore led a rebound in resource-related stocks. Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG pushed carmakers higher as a weaker euro boosted earnings prospects. Standard Chartered PLC led a measure of banks to its first daily advance since Monday.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.3 percent to 341.71 at the close of trading on Friday. The equity gauge rebounded as much as 14 percent since a Feb. 11 low amid a rally in banks and miners, and central banks’ steps to spur growth. This week’s scaling back by the US Federal Reserve of expectations for interest-rate increases complemented a wave of monetary easing that saw Norway cut borrowing costs and Switzerland hold rates at record lows, a week after the European Central Bank boosted stimulus.
“We’ve finally seen some light at the end of the tunnel,” said William Hobbs, head of investment strategy at Barclays PLC’s wealth-management unit in London. “Central banks will remain accommodative. Better economic prospects in different parts of the world signal that this may at some point happen in Europe.”
Still, lingering uncertainty over corporate earnings has restrained progress, and the STOXX 600 posted its first weekly decline in five.
Strategists have slashed expectations for European stocks, painting the gloomiest annual outlook in five years.The Euro STOXX 50 Index is forecast to advance 1 percent by the end of this year. Only a few months ago, those same strategists were calling a 12 percent rally.
Among stocks moving on corporate news, Salvatore Ferragamo SpA added 3.1 percent after the Italian luxury-shoe maker posted better-than-expected full-year earnings and predicted another positive year.
Assicurazioni Generali SpA slid 1.7 percent after reporting worse-than-estimated net income. Berkeley Group Holdings PLC fell 2.2 percent after London’s biggest homebuilder reported a drop in reservations, even as it forecast the year’s results to reach the top end of expectations.
Abengoa SA slid 4.2 percent after the Spanish renewable energy company seeking to avoid insolvency asked financial creditors for a seven-month standstill to help it restructure 9.4 billion euros (US$10.6 billion) of debt. Home Retail PLC tumbled 9.9 percent after Steinhoff International Holdings NV said it would not make an offer for the UK retailer.
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],”
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
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