European stocks rose on Friday on a surge in technology stocks, strong earnings from France’s L’Oreal SA and a broad boost to sentiment provided by a surprise interest payment from debt-ridden China Evergrande Group (恆大集團).
The STOXX 600 added 0.5 percent to close at over six-week highs and logged its third consecutive week of gains, up 0.5 percent.
News that the Chinese property developer had made a bond payment to avert a default lifted the mood globally. Worries about contagion from a potential default have rattled markets recently.
France’s blue-chip CAC 40 rose 0.7 percent and outperformed its European peers, riding on a 5.1 percent surge in L’Oreal shares following the cosmetics company’s strong results.
Shares in Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding NV and German software firm SAP SE rose 3.2 percent and 1.2 percent respectively, after stumbling earlier this week following their results. The tech sector rose 1.5 percent.
Investors appeared to look past a survey that showed growth in eurozone business activity slowed this month as firms face soaring costs due to supply chain constraints, while the bloc’s dominant service industry struggled amid COVID-19 concerns.
Automaker Renault SA and Continental AG flagged chip shortages hitting output and margins.
“We’ve lots of earnings beats on lowered expectations, and then you’re getting comments from CEOs suggesting supply chains are damaged — but certain firms have said that they’re on top of it,” said Keith Temperton, sales trader at Forte Securities. “That’s hopeful for the markets.”
A bunch of upbeat earnings lifted Wall Street’s S&P 500 to a record high, while its European counterpart is less than 1 percent shy of its August peak.
Europe Inc is expected to see a 47.6 percent rise in third-quarter profit to 96.1 billion euros (US$112 billion), latest data from Refinitiv IBES showed, a slight improvement from last week’s 46.7 percent growth forecast.
Eurozone inflation expectations hit their highest levels in years, putting additional pressure on the European Central Bank over its insistence on maintaining crisis-era stimulus. The central bank is set to meet next week.
“That inflation is transitory does not necessarily mean that it is short-lived. An adjustment of supply to the changes in patterns of demand caused by the pandemic may be slow, and keep upward pressure on prices for longer,” strategists at Citigroup Inc wrote in a note.
Swedish mining firm Boliden AB dipped 6.8 percent as its third-quarter operating profit fell below market forecasts.
Remy Cointreau rose 1.8 percent after it said it was growing increasingly confident about its full year outlook after second-quarter sales beat expectations.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
Asian e-commerce giant Shein’s (希音) decision to set up shop in a historic Parisian department store has ruffled feathers in the fashion capital. Anger has been boiling since Shein announced last week that it would open its first permanent physical store next month at BHV Marais, an iconic building that has stood across from Paris City Hall since 1856. The move prompted some French brands to announce they would leave BHV Marais, but the department store had already been losing tenants over late payments. Aime cosmetics line cofounder Mathilde Lacombe, whose brand was among those that decided to leave following
RSS