European stocks rose last week, sending the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index to its biggest gain since March last year, after governments announced bank rescue packages to shore up the financial system and restore investor confidence.
Credit Suisse Group AG posted a record weekly advance and Barclays Plc climbed 6.5 percent as European leaders agreed to guarantee new bank debt and money-market rates declined. Ericsson AB rallied 12 percent as its mobile-phone venture with Sony Corp reported a smaller-than-estimated loss.
The Stoxx 600 added 4.5 percent to 214.27. The gauge jumped 13 percent in the first two days last week, the biggest two-day surge on record, before posting the steepest two-day tumble since 1987 after reports showed a drop in U.S. retail sales and the highest UK unemployment since November 2006.
The benchmark index for European equities is down 41 percent this year as credit losses and asset writedowns at financial firms worldwide reached US$660 billion, pushing the global economy toward a recession.
“The government measures were a huge progress to win back trust,” said Erwin Brunner, who oversees the equivalent of US$442 million as executive officer at BrunnerInvest AG in Zurich. “The slump in the US remains the dominant factor and Europe follows. I can’t see how the economy can grow given the financial problems, we will go into a recession.”
The US said it would invest US$250 billion in the nation’s banks and urged lenders to use the funds to spur economic growth. The injection came after France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria pledged 1.3 trillion euros (US$1.8 trillion) to guarantee bank loans and take stakes in lenders.
National benchmark indexes rose in 11 of the 18 western European markets. Germany’s DAX Index increased 5.2 percent. France’s CAC 40 advanced 4.8 percent, while the UK’s FTSE 100 added 3.3 percent.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
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