Eurostoxx 50: 2,705.75 (+48.30) Frankfurt DAX: 7,221.36 (+28.69) Paris CAC: 3,754.60 (+59.50)EUROPEAN EQUITY markets moved higher yesterday after a large aircraft order from the US lifted shares in the aerospace sector.
EADS and some of its suppliers rose after American Airlines signed an order for 460 aircraft to replace its ageing fleet. Splitting its order between EADS’s Airbus subsidiary and rival Boeing, the US carrier booked 260 Airbus planes, giving the European manufacturer an important foothold in the US.
Ahead of second-quarter results next week, Deutsche Bank raised its target price on EADS to €26 from €24.50. “We expect cash flow to be strong, aided by the excellent order intake at the recent Paris Airshow,” said Benjamin Fidler, an analyst at the bank.
Shares in EADS rose 3.6 per cent to €24.79.
Safran, the aircraft parts manufacturer, was up 4.7 per cent to €29, after it was reported the Leap-X engine, made by the company’s CFM International joint venture with General Electric, was favoured in the deal.
Zodiac Aerospace, a maker of galley units for the A320 and was a takeover target of Safran a year ago, rose 4.5 per cent to €61.13.
Meanwhile, Italy’s Finmeccanica, which shares joint ventures or owns units that supply both EADS and Boeing, rose 1.1 per cent to €7.53.
Overall, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 climbed 1.3 per cent to 1,091.11, with the weightiest advances coming from the region’s banks on rising hopes a solution to Europe’s debt crisis would be brokered this week.
France’s Société Générale gained 5.1 per cent to €36, while rival BNP Paribas added 4.6 per cent to €46.96. Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo climbed 6.6 per cent to €1.65, while UniCredit rose 5.9 per cent to €1.26.
Wärtsilä, the Finnish engineering group, climbed 5.6 per cent to €20.50 after reporting a 5 per cent rise in second-quarter earnings. The shares fell heavily last week after the company issued a sales warning, but the numbers were not as bad as investors had feared.
Shares in Accor, Europe’s largest hotel group, rose 2.8 per cent to €30.31 after a better-than-expected rise in second-quarter profit. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)
