European shares rose on Friday, led by NEX Group PLC as it jumped after a takeover offer, although stocks ended the week mostly flat as worries about a trade war and geopolitical tensions kept investors on edge.
The pan-European STOXX 600 on Friday rose 0.83 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 377.7, sliding 0.1 percent from 378.24 on March 9.
Germany’s DAX on Friday rose 44.02 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,389.58 following a delayed open. The index edged up 0.3 percent from a close of 12,346.68 a week earlier.
The first day of trading got off to a bumpy start for Siemens Healthineers, which gained just more than 5 percent.
Worries about a possible trade war have hung over equities since US President Donald Trump earlier this month announced that he would introduce tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, while a shake-up of the president’s Cabinet has also dampened the mood.
“We have become a little bit more tepid on European stocks as the year progresses,” Mediolanum Asset Management Ltd head of investments Gautam Batra said.
“We felt valuations carried weight in favor of Europe, but the sector makeup doesn’t look that great and the news on the trade front isn’t supportive for Europe either,” Batra added.
Dealmaking added some spice to trading, with exchange operator NEX Group soaring about 33 percent to the top of the STOXX following a preliminary takeover offer from US-based peer CME Group Inc.
“There has been an element of companies holding back over the last couple of years until the economic recovery got established,” Interactive Investor head of markets Richard Hunter said.
“In this hyper-low interest rate environment, there are only so many things that companies can do with ... the excess cash they are generating and a lot of them have done share buybacks or increased their dividend and more lately we’re now seeing a spike in M&A [mergers and acquisitions] activity,” Hunter added.
Telecoms group Altice NV jumped 5 percent following its results, with the debt-ridden group saying that it sees signs of a recovery in the competitive French market.
French oil storage and distribution company Rubis SCA was another top gainer, up 3.3 percent at a record high after reporting full-year results and upping its dividend.
However, shares in British housebuilder Berkeley Group Holdings PLC fell 4.6 percent after the company said it could not boost building volumes beyond current plans.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
FAULTs BELOW: Asia is particularly susceptible to anything unfortunate happening to the AI industry, with tech companies hugely responsible for its market strength The sudden slump in Asia’s technology shares last week has jolted investors, serving as a stark reminder that the world-beating rally in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor stocks might be nearing a short-term crest. The region’s sharpest decline since April — triggered by a tech-led sell-off on Wall Street — has refocused attention on cracks beneath the surface: the rally’s narrow breadth, heavy reliance on retail traders, and growing uncertainty around the timing of US Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts. Last week’s “sell-off is a reminder that Asia’s market structure is just more vulnerable,” Saxo Markets chief investment strategist Charu Chanana said in
RSS