European stocks rose last week, led by construction companies and commodity producers, on speculation a US stimulus plan will prevent a prolonged recession in the world’s largest economy.
Lafarge SA, the biggest cement maker, and Holcim Ltd climbed at least 11 percent as US president-elect Barack Obama said he was planning the most extensive public-works spending package since the 1950s.
Rio Tinto Group, the third-largest mining company, surged 42 percent after saying it will reduce debt. Gains in the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index were limited after the Senate rejected a US$14 billion plan to rescue US carmakers.
GRAPHIC: AP
The STOXX 600 added 4.4 percent to 198.22, bringing the rebound from this year’s low last month to 8.8 percent as governments from the US to India announced packages to buoy the global economy and prevent earnings from tumbling.
“Stimulus plans offer oxygen as we face an accumulation of bad news,” said Pierre Nebout, a fund manager at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management in Paris, which oversees US$3.9 billion in stocks.
“The market welcomes them,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
The STOXX 600 has tumbled 46 percent this year as almost US$1 trillion in bank losses and writedowns froze credit markets and pushed the US, Europe and Japan into the first simultaneous recessions since World War II.
National benchmark indexes rose in all 18 western European markets this week except Iceland.
Germany’s DAX Index added 6.4 percent. France’s CAC 40 climbed 7.6 percent and the UK’s FTSE 100 increased 5.7 percent.
Lafarge gained 11 percent.
Holcim, the world’s second-biggest cement maker, advanced 19 percent. Lafarge gets 24 percent of its sales in North America, while Holcim generates almost 20 percent of revenue there.
Obama said on Dec. 6 he would boost investment in roads, bridges and public buildings to create and preserve 2.5 million jobs.
That’s the largest public works program since US president Dwight Eisenhower created the interstate highway system.
Mining stocks climbed 17 percent as a group this week, the best-performing industry in the STOXX 600.
Rio Tinto surged 42 percent after the company said it would cut 14,000 jobs and slash spending next year to reduce debt as the global financial crisis curbs demand for metals.
Lonmin Plc, the third-largest platinum producer, and Vedanta Resources Inc, the mining company controlled by billionaire Anil Agarwal, each soared 29 percent.
The STOXX 600 pared its weekly gain, losing 2.7 percent on Friday after the US Senate’s rejection of a rescue for carmakers in the US.
The bailout plan was thwarted when a bid to cut off debate on the bill the House passed on Thursday fell short of the required 60 votes.
The Bush administration will “evaluate our options in light of the breakdown in Congress,” spokesman Tony Fratto said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)