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PARIS / LONDON (dpa-AFX) – Robust quarterly figures from some heavyweights gave the most important European stock markets a boost on Wednesday. After a weaker previous day, the EuroStoxx 50 (EURO STOXX 50), the leading index in the euro zone, gained 1.72 percent to 3896.81 points.
The French CAC 40 increased by 1.38 percent to 6624.91 points. The British FTSE 100 developed somewhat more subduedly with plus 0.37 percent to 7629.22 points, here the weak commodity values slowed down somewhat.
The Ukraine war and the resulting consequences have already been priced in to a large extent, according to market expert Andreas Lipkow from Comdirect. However, the situation must not deteriorate any further. “So far, market participants are still assuming temporary effects that will smooth out again in the coming months of trading,” said Lipkow.
However, Marc Decker, deputy head of equities at Quintet Private Bank, warned against extrapolating strong company figures for the first quarter for the year as a whole: “Consumer confidence in the euro zone has recently fallen very sharply and is almost at a recessionary level.” This indicates that company numbers for the second quarter and for the whole of 2022 should be revised downwards, at least slightly.
At the top of the individual sectors were the technology stocks, which could not be thrown off course by a further disappointment of the US streaming group Netflix and high price losses of the Netflix papers by more than a third. Strong figures from the chip industry supplier ASML (ASML NV) inspired. The Dutch group had announced that orders in the first three months amounted to around seven billion euros, as in the previous quarter. This pushed up the order book to 29 billion euros at the end of March, said ASML chief financial officer Roger Dassen. ASML shares gained 5.3 percent after a period of weakness since the start of the year.
Danone was also convincing. The French food group started the year with a significant increase in sales, mainly due to price increases. Analyst Celine Pannuti from Bank JPMorgan spoke of a solid first quarter. The shares ended their weak phase and jumped 5.8 percent. Speculations about a takeover by the rival Lactalis and a good sales development of the water manufacturer Evian also drove.
CRH (CRH) gained 5.9 percent. After a positive first quarter, the Irish building materials group also expects increases for the first half of the year. Sales and operating profit (Ebitda) are likely to be higher in the first six months than a year earlier, the company said. The operating result is likely to increase more than sales.
The banking sector did not let the disappointing figures from the major bank Credit Suisse (Credit Suisse (CS)) slow it down and grew significantly. At the Swiss institute, however, there was a minus of 1.5 percent. After the loss of billions in 2021, the new year started in the red. New provisions for old litigation, the war in Ukraine and an impairment of an investment should result in a loss in the first quarter.
At the bottom of the European sectors were commodity stocks. Rio Tinto disappointed with production figures, the shares lost 4.8 percent. The Canadian bank RBC wrote that the mining group had made a weak start to 2022. Analyst Tyler Broda then trimmed this year’s operating profit (Ebitda) estimate due to low iron ore and copper volumes but higher costs./ajx/he