Most European stocks fell, even as the benchmark index completed a weekly advance, amid concern that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia is deepening.
The STOXXX Europe 600 Index lost less than 0.1 percent to 339.66 at the close in London as three stocks fell for every two that rose.
The equity benchmark slid 0.9 percent on Thursday after Ukraine said that pro-Russian separatists shot down a Malaysia Air jet near the town of Torez. The gauge still gained 0.8 percent this week.
National benchmark indices fell in 11 of the 18 Western European markets. The UK’s FTSE 100 added 0.2 percent, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.4 percent and Germany’s DAX declined 0.4 percent.
Air France-KLM and Ryanair Holdings PLC led a retreat among European travel stocks.
Air France-KLM lost 2.1 percent to 8.59 euros, Deutsche Lufthansa AG slid 1.1 percent to 14.45 euros and Ryanair declined 1.9 percent to 6.73 euros.
A gauge of auto industry companies posted the worst performance among the 19 industry groups in the STOXX 600.
Volvo AB fell 5.4 percent to 87.30 kronor on Friday, the most since October last year. The world’s second-largest truckmaker reported second-quarter earnings before interest and taxes of 3.56 billion kronor (US$521 million), missing the 4.28 billion kronor average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
Schibsted ASA declined 6.1 percent to 309 kroner after Norway’s biggest media group reported second-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 574 million kroner (US$93 million), missing the average estimate of 611 million kroner. Friday’s drop was the biggest since August 2011 for Schibsted.
Daimler AG declined 1.7 percent to 65.40 euros. Michelin & Cie., Europe’s biggest tiremaker, lost 1 percent to 85.41 euros.
Shire PLC rose 4 percent after AbbVie Inc agreed to buy the drugmaker for ￡52.48 (US$89.80) a share, while Ericsson AB posted the biggest rally since April 2011 after reporting a profit margin that beat forecasts.
AbbVie’s cash-and-stock deal values Shire at 53 percent above its closing price on May 2, before the US drugmaker made its first proposal, according to a statement. The combined company will cut their tax rate to about 13 percent from 22 percent.
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
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