Both Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 50 and Stoxx 600 indexes recorded their second weekly gain in three, as companies including Deutsche Telekom AG and UBS AG beat analyst forecasts and said profit would improve.
The Stoxx 50 today lost 0.1 percent to 2342.48, trimming its advance for the week to 2 percent. The Stoxx 600 added 0.1 percent to 197.51. It climbed 2 percent since last Friday, with banks and phone stocks accounting for a third of the gain.
"We clearly see light at the end of the tunnel," said Harald Sporleder, who manages US$2.3 billion at Allianz Dresdner Asset Management in Frankfurt and who is buying shares in European banks and insurance companies.
"The market is speculating on a step by step economic recovery, which will at the same time improve" revenue growth.
Benchmark indexes rose in all of the 17 Western European markets this week. The UK's FTSE 100 Index added 2 percent, Germany's DAX Index climbed 1.1 percent and France's CAC 40 advanced 0.9 percent.
Stocks rose this week even as economy of the euro region stagnated in the first quarter. The gross domestic product of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands shrank in the period, signaling that Europe is on the brink of recession.
Deutsche Telekom, Europe's biggest phone company, rose 6.3 percent to 12.30 euros (US$10.76). The company said it expects to break even this year after reporting its first profit in eight quarters.
UBS, Europe's largest bank, gained 9.5 percent to 71 Swiss francs (US$93.65). It said Tuesday that first-quarter net income fell 11 percent, less than the 25 percent slide forecast by analysts.
"It's starting to smell like the end of the bear market," UBS President Peter Wuffli said then.
Bayer AG, a German drug and chemical maker, advanced 7.1 percent to 18.23 euros this week after reporting higher-than-expected earnings on May 7 after cutting costs.
"In five year's time you'll look back and say this was the time to buy stocks," said Roger Hornett, who helps oversee US$5.3 billion as a global strategist at Theodoor Gilissen Securities in London. The better-than-forecast results indicate that "people have been overly pessimistic" about the outlook for earnings.
Media stocks led percentage gains for the five-day period, lifting the Stoxx media index 5.3 percent.
Havas SA, the world's sixth-largest advertising company, surged 24 percent to 4.04 euros. The Paris-based company said Tuesday it cut some of its debt and arrested a decline in sales.
Retailers surged for the week as takeover speculation boosted shares of Selfridges Plc, which owns the biggest department store on London's Oxford Street, and Debenhams Plc, the UK's second-biggest department-store chain. The Stoxx retail index climbed 5 percent.
Debenhams jumped 23 percent to £4.0625 (US$2.51), while Selfridges added 11 percent to £3.945.
LogicaCMG Plc, Europe's third-largest provider of computer services, jumped 21 percent to £1.4725. It said Thursday demand from UK customers improved in the first three months of the year.
Chelsfield Plc, a UK real estate company, led Stoxx 600 gains, surging 32 percent to £3.04. The real-estate company that owns offices and the Wentworth golf-course said Chairman Elliott Bernerd and the management team might make a cash bid to buy the company.
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‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
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