FRANKFURT (Dow Jones) — Europe’s stock exchanges closed on Thursday with small premiums. The news on the inflation front was still bad. In the core components, consumer prices continued to rise in the euro area in February. Core consumer prices rose by 0.8 percent for the month and exceeded the level of the same month last year by 5.6 (5.3) percent. Economists had forecast monthly price increases of 0.4 percent and stable annual inflation of 5.3 percent. After a whole series of inflation readings have been higher than expected in the past few days, the stock markets have had little movement. These recovered slightly from the recent levies.
The DAX gained 0.15 percent to 15,328, the Euro Stoxx 50 gained 0.6 percent to 4,241. Commerzbank expects that core inflation in the euro area will not reach its cyclical peak until July. After that, it should only go back slowly. “In the meantime, companies are likely to have passed on a large part of the energy price-related increase in production costs to consumers. But now, with the sharp rise in wages, a new wave of inflation is imminent. This will drive up prices for services in particular,” it said.
Within the technology sector, chip stocks were under pressure. Infineon lost 0.5 percent and STMicro 3.2 percent. In retail, reference was made to the electric car manufacturer Tesla, which apparently wants to reduce the use of the semiconductor silicon carbide. This news is negative for the entire silicon carbide supply chain, especially for STMicro, according to Equita.
Covestro does not want to pay a dividend
The earnings season made the music in the singles titles. Covestro fell by 6.2 percent. In view of economic and geopolitical uncertainties, the plastics group expects a lower operating profit this year than in 2022. Shareholders will have to forego a dividend after Covestro posted a net loss in 2022, as already reported in January. That amounted to 272 million euros. Analysts had expected a minus in the dividend for 2022, but not that it would be completely canceled, as the stock market says.
After a roller coaster ride, Merck closed 1.1 percent higher. The bottom line was that the business figures were seen as “ok” in retail. The growth expectations have been met. The outlook initially had a negative impact on the share. According to Jefferies, this was a disappointment.
Evonik lost 0.1 percent. The margin has come back compared to the previous year, the EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 413 million was around 8 percent below market expectations, as Jefferies said. Q1 EBITDA growth should be broadly in line with Q4 – with persistently weak demand.
After presenting the business figures for 2022 and the outlook for 2023, Clariant shares fell by 1.4 percent. The stock market referred to the EBITDA in the final quarter of 2022, which was around 5 percent below the consensus. Sales, on the other hand, slightly exceeded market expectations. The proposed dividend of CHF 0.42 is in line with expectations.
CRH plans to move main listing to US
A positive news flow caused CRH’s share price to rise by 8 percent. Davy analysts praised the increased EBITDA margin, strong cash generation and share buyback. In addition, CRH intends to move its main listing to the United States. The decision of the building material supplier is logical for investment strategist Russ Mold from AJ Bell, since a large part of the income comes from the USA. The management already spends a lot of time there, both operationally and in discussions with investors. Also, the company could get a higher rating there.
Morphosys (-4.6%) is ceasing its preclinical research programs and research activities. As announced by the company, which is listed on the TecDAX and SDAX, it intends to optimize its cost structure. At the headquarters in Planegg near Munich, the workforce is to be reduced by 17 percent.
Cost pressure and incoming orders slowed down Kion, and the share fell by 3.6 percent. According to one market participant, the dynamic decline in incoming orders in the fourth quarter in particular bodes negatively for the future and for sales growth. In addition, because of the cost pressure, it is not clear how the significantly reduced margin is to be increased again. The somewhat lower dividend, on the other hand, is only a side note. Grenke closed 1.3 percent lower – due to the implementation of a new digitization program in the coming years, the targeted group result for 2024 will only be 120 million euros instead of the previously forecast 140 million euros.
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Index Closing Development Development Development
. was absolute in % since
. beginning of year*
Euro Stoxx 50 4,240.59 +24.84 +0.6% +11.8%
Stoxx 50 3,899.20 +31.72 +0.8% +6.8%
Stoxx 600 460.02 +2.34 +0.5% +8.3%
XETRA DAX 15,327.64 +22.62 +0.1% +10.1%
FTSE-100 London 7,944.04 +29.11 +0.4% +6.2%
CAC-40 Paris 7,284.22 +49.97 +0.7% +12.5%
AEX Amsterdam 755.17 +5.79 +0.8% +9.6%
ATHEX-20 Athens 2,734.98 -34.40 -1.2% +21.5%
BEL-20 Brussels 3,856.39 -23.48 -0.6% +4.2%
BUX Budapest 44,300.61 -330.42 -0.7% +1.2%
OMXH-25 Helsinki 5,006.00 -10.32 -0.2% +4.0%
ISE NAT. 30 Istanbul 5,788.35 -78.26 -1.3% -2.6%
OMXC-20 Copenhagen 1,942.96 +3.81 +0.2% +5.9%
PSI 20 Lisbon 5,969.73 +44.99 +0.8% +5.0%
IBEX-35 Madrid 9,327.30 +4.40 +0.0% +13.4%
FTSE-MIB Milan 27,397.60 +82.52 +0.3% +15.2%
RTS Moscow 942.61 -13.20 -1.4% -2.9%
OBX Oslo 1,139.19 +10.25 +0.9% +4.5%
PX Prague 1,413.38 -8.00 -0.6% +17.6%
OMXS-30 Stockholm 2,214.67 -0.01 -0.0% +8.4%
WIG-20 Warsaw 1,817.77 -38.45 -2.1% +1.4%
ATX Vienna 3,524.50 +19.76 +0.6% +12.7%
SMI Zurich 11,165.58 +109.50 +1.0% +4.1%
* at the end of the day
Fixed income market last absolute +/- YTD
German ten-year return 2.75 +0.04 +0.18
US 10-year yield 4.08 +0.08 +0.20
FOREX last +/- % Thu 8:29 Wed 17:21 % YTD
EUR/USD 1.0592 -0.7% 1.0639 1.0666 -1.1%
EUR/JPY 144.95 -0.2% 145.55 145.15 +3.3%
EUR/CHF 0.9981 -0.4% 1.0034 1.0023 +0.8%
EUR/GBP 0.8872 +0.0% 0.8886 0.8885 +0.3%
USD/JPY 136.86 +0.5% 136.80 136.09 +4.4%
GBP/USD 1.1939 -0.7% 1.1973 1.2004 -1.3%
USD/CNH (Offshore) 6.9215 +0.7% 6.9153 6.8786 -0.1%
Bitcoin
BTC/USD 23,268.50 -1.2% 23,368.55 23,624.43 +40.2%
ROHOEL last VT-Settlem. +/- % +/- USD % YTD
WTI/Nymex 77.92 77.69 +0.3% +0.23 -3.2%
Brent/ICE 84.63 84.31 +0.4% +0.32 -0.9%
GAS VT Settlem. +/- EUR
Dutch TTF 46.61 47.08 -1.0% -0.48 -36.9%
METALS last day before +/- % +/- USD % YTD
Gold (Spot) 1,835.67 1,836.70 -0.1% -1.03 +0.7%
Silver (Spot) 20.83 21.03 -0.9% -0.20 -13.1%
Platinum (Spot) 964.50 960.50 +0.4% +4.00 -9.7%
Copper Future 4.09 4.17 -1.8% -0.07 +7.4%
YTD relative to previous day’s close
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 02, 2023 12:06 ET (17:06 GMT)
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