European shares rose on Friday as industrial and financial stocks gained on China-led optimism, but recession worries ahead of a slew of central bank decisions dragged the STOXX 600 index to a weekly loss after a seven-week rally.
The STOXX 600 closed 0.8 percent higher, at 439.13, snapping a five-day losing streak that was largely driven by concerns about an impending global recession due to sharp interest rate increases by global central banks. The index was down 0.94 percent from a week earlier.
The FTSE 100 on Friday gained 0.06 percent to 7,476.63, but lost 1.05 percent from a week earlier.
Data on Thursday showing a rise in US weekly jobless claims raised hopes that the US Federal Reserve could temper its aggressive stance on interest rate hikes, with China’s easing of its strict COVID-19 prevention measures also aiding sentiment.
The next week would be crucial, with rate decisions due from the Fed, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB).
The ECB might raise rates by 50 basis points next week, a Reuters poll showed, following two straight 75 basis point increases.
Photo: REUTERS
“It’s uncertainty as to what central banks are likely to do in the new year, not next week, that’s prompting a little bit of caution given that most of the economic data that we’re seeing indicate that we are going to see a bit of a slowdown in economic activity,” CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson said.
Industrial stocks such as Siemens AG and Schneider Electric SE were among the biggest boosts to the index, while China-exposed stocks such as Prudential PLC rose 3.0 percent.
Lenders snapped their four-day losing streak and advanced 0.9 percent, as eurozone banks are set to repay another 447.5 billion euros (US$471.7 billion) in multiyear loans from the ECB, bringing the total paydown to nearly 800 billion euros in just a few weeks, the ECB said.
Credit Suisse jumped 6.8 percent after the embattled bank on Thursday hailed a “milestone” in its turnaround plan after raising 2.24 billion Swiss francs (US$2.39 billion) as part of a SF4 billion cash call.
Vestas A/S gained 6.4 percent as the Danish wind turbine maker announced new orders and UBS raised its price target.
LIMITED IMPACT: Investor confidence was likely sustained by its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as only less advanced chips are made in Nanjing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) saw its stock price close steady yesterday in a sign that the loss of the validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing, China, fab should have a mild impact on the world’s biggest contract chipmaker financially and technologically. Media reports about the waiver loss sent TSMC down 1.29 percent during the early trading session yesterday, but the stock soon regained strength and ended at NT$1,160, unchanged from Tuesday. Investors’ confidence in TSMC was likely built on its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as Chinese customers contributed about 9 percent to TSMC’s revenue last
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), which assembles servers for Nvidia Corp, yesterday said that revenue last month rose 10.61 percent year-on-year, driven by strong growth in cloud and networking products amid continued front-loading orders for artificial intelligence (AI) server racks. Consolidated revenue expanded to NT$606.51 billion (US$19.81 billion) last month from NT$548.31 billion a year earlier, marking the highest ever in August, the company said in a statement. On a monthly basis, revenue was down 1.2 percent from NT$613.86 billion. Hon Hai, which is also a major iPhone assembler, added that its electronic components division saw significant revenue growth last month, boosted
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