European stocks had the biggest weekly gain in a month, led by banks and raw-material producers, as concern eased that losses in the financial industry will worsen and higher metals prices lifted mining shares.
Barclays PLC added 10 percent and Credit Suisse Group AG rose 7 percent as the US government provided funding to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the biggest US mortgage-finance companies.
BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s largest mining company, climbed 4.9 percent as copper rebounded. ITV PLC rallied 21 percent as Mediaset SpA reiterated interest in the UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster.
Europe’s Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index added 3 percent to 280.41, trimming this year’s decline to 23 percent. Almost US$16 trillion has been erased from global equities this year as the first nationwide decline in US home prices since the Great Depression sparked more than US$510 billion in credit-related losses worldwide and threatened economic growth.
“People will start to see some light at the end of the tunnel now” for financial companies, said William De Vijlder, chief investment officer at Fortis Investments, which has the equivalent of US$309 in assets under management.
“We still believe we are in a commodities bull market,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
National benchmark indexes advanced in 14 of the 18 western European markets this week. France’s CAC 40 gained 3.2 percent, and Germany’s DAX added 1.8 percent. The UK’s FTSE 100 Index increased 3.4 percent this week. A computer fault on Monday left some traders without prices and unable to buy or sell shares in London for more than six hours.
Barclays, the UK’s third-largest bank, climbed 10 percent. Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, increased 7 percent.
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said last Sunday the US government would provide short-term funding to Fannie and Freddie and purchase debt backed by home loans. Paulson and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart placed the companies in a government-operated conservatorship.
Investors speculated on Friday that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. will be bought after the stock erased more than 70 percent of its value this week on a larger-than-estimated loss for the third quarter.
Rising metal prices helped send a measure of raw-material producers to the steepest gain among 18 industry groups in the STOXX 600, adding 5.4 percent. Copper rallied 3.4 percent in London this week, snapping a two-week decline. Nickel and tin also advanced.
BHP increased 4.9 percent. Anglo American PLC, the world’s fourth-biggest diversified mining company, rallied 8.6 percent.
ITV soared 21 percent, leading gains among media stocks in the STOXX 600 and posting the steepest advance among all shares in the measure.
Ciba Holding AG, the world’s largest maker of colors for plastics, surged 18 on speculation that the company may be a takeover target for bigger chemical companies. Ciba spokesman Tobias Woelfing said the company doesn’t comment on market “rumors.”
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft