European shares ended Friday in positive territory after a choppy session, posting a slim weekly gain as investors digested a flurry of company results that included disappointing updates from Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS) and Valeo SA.
The STOXX 600 closed up 0.23 percent at 381.22 points and ended the week on a 0.16 percent rise, a second gain in a row since a market correction early this month.
“The STOXX is on course to end the week flat as markets stabilize and volatility calms,” IG Markets Ltd chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said just before the close. “While there hasn’t been much upside, we have also successfully navigated another week without a major selloff, an encouraging development that clearly bodes well for the week ahead.”
RBS declined 4.8 percent after posting its first full-year profit since 2007.
Traders said the underlying result missed expectations, while the lack of an update on a settlement with the US Department of Justice for mis-selling toxic mortgage-backed securities also weighed.
French auto parts maker Valeo slumped 11 percent to a six-month low, making it the biggest loser on the STOXX 600.
Its second-half profit fell on adverse exchange rates and raw materials prices, prompting UBS to cut its price target on the stock.
Elsewhere among financials, Standard Life Aberdeen PLC fell 2.5 percent after agreeing to sell the bulk of its insurance business to Phoenix Group Holdings PLC for ￡3.24 billion (US$4.53 billion), while Swiss Re AG rose 2.5 percent after reporting better-than-expected net income for last year.
Oil services firm Subsea 7 SA jumped 7.35 percent after news of joint venture talks with larger rival Schlumberger Ltd, which also supported shares in rival Saipem SpA, up 2.5 percent.
In the energy sector, Neste Corp hit a record high following an upgrade from Barclays PLC, which said demand for renewable fuels should continue to increase. It ended the day up 3.5 percent.
Telecoms were lifted by a 5 percent rise in BT Group PLC, after Britain’s telecoms regulator OFCOM set a more generous cap on prices the company can charge rivals to use its fast broadband service.
Berenberg analysts upgraded BT to buy from hold saying clarity over the investment case was set to improve and that its share prices already reflected “fairly negative” outcomes on regulation, its pension review, and capital expenditure risk.
The sector, which has been underperforming the broader market in the past few years on worries over competition, regulation and costly investment plans, was also boosted by gains in Telecom Italia SpA, up 2.1 percent on heavy newsflow about possible dealmaking.
Three sources told Reuters that the Italian former phone monopoly had chosen Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Credit Suisse Group AG to work on a spin-off of its fixed-line network.
Another source said Telecom Italia could ditch a proposed joint-venture with Canal+, the pay-TV arm of its top shareholder, French media group Vivendi SA.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
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