PARIS / LONDON (dpa-AFX) – The friendly US stock exchanges helped the European stock markets into the profit zone on Thursday. The resignation of British Prime Minister Liz Truss also supported prices on both sides of the Atlantic – the markets around the world are likely to observe the news “certainly benevolently, but at the same time critically,” stated portfolio manager Thomas Altmann of QC Partners.
The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 (EURO STOXX 50), which was weakening until midday, managed to gain 0.62 percent to 3492.85 points. The French CAC 40 ultimately increased by 0.76 percent to 6086.90 points. In London, it was enough for the FTSE 100 to gain 0.27 percent to 6943.91 points after Truss’ resignation.
Capital market strategist Jürgen Molnar from the broker Robomarkets referred to the US government bond market, where the yield on paper with a term of ten years is still well above the four percent mark. “The round mark, which many had interpreted as a signal for an impending trend reversal in both market interest rates and the monetary policy tightening course of the central banks, was therefore only a break in the ongoing upward trend,” says Molnar.
Numerous company reports were the focus of attention on the European stock exchanges. The figures in the telecommunications sector were disappointing. Collapsed revenues for its patents and licenses burdened the third quarter of the Swedish network supplier Ericsson (Ericsson (telephone AB LMEricsson) (B)) significantly – the shares sagged by almost 15 percent. The Finnish competitor Nokia was not convincing either. Its weak operating results caused the shares to fall by over seven and a half percent as the Eurostoxx bottom.
Another Northern European company, Volvo (Volvo AB (B)), fell short of expectations. Analyst Daniela Costa from Goldman Sachs criticized the margin development in the commercial vehicle manufacturer’s figures. The papers lost a good four percent.
Meanwhile, another Scandinavian company fared better. The fertilizer company Yara (Yara International ASA) managed to compensate for the burden of production cuts and increased gas costs with higher sales prices in the third quarter. The shares increased by a good six and a half percent.
Hermes (Hermès (Hermes International)) was also convincing, which was reflected in a price increase of a good one and a half percent. The French luxury goods manufacturer had strongly increased its sales in the third quarter, joining the solid development of other companies in the sector. Competitor LVMH (LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton) had already presented surprisingly strong sales last week thanks to the shopping desire of US tourists in Europe.
Despite the weakening economy, consumers do not seem to be denying themselves the luxury of a good drop. Spirits maker Pernod Ricard increased quarterly sales, beating estimates with numbers. After the significant price increase in recent weeks, however, the share has now fallen by more than one percent.
At the chemical company Akzo Nobel, according to the figures, the price fell by 1.4 percent. The third quarter was as expected, but the outlook for the final quarter is much weaker than expected, wrote JPMorgan analyst Chetan Udeshi./gl/he