European shares closed higher on Friday as upbeat cues from Wall Street helped offset early losses emanating from weaker commodity prices and mixed earnings reports.
In the US, Wall Street’s main indices rose as a jump in shares of Apple on upbeat results provided enough of a boost to outweigh a dour warning from Amazon.
DUBLIN
The Iseq index finished the session ahead by 0.6 per cent, with the big banks doing much of the heavy lifting. AIB rose by close to 3 per cent to €2.95, after it issued an upbeat trading statement saying there is “momentum” in the business, with an upswing in interest income expected. Its rival, Bank of Ireland, closed 2.2 per cent higher at €7.22 per share.
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Building materials supplier CRH, another of the Iseq’s heavyweights, was ahead by 2.7 per cent to €36.29 per share. Its peer, Holcim, earlier reported solid third-quarter earnings while Saint Gobain, another big company in the sector, said European markets remained “resilient”.
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LONDON
The UK’s FTSE 100 fell as widening Covid-19 curbs in China dragged down commodity-linked stocks, while British bank NatWest — Ulster Bank’s parent — slumped after reporting a flat third-quarter profit.
The exporter-heavy FTSE 100 closed 0.4 per cent lower, with precious metal miners falling 3.3 per cent as gold and silver prices tumbled against a stronger dollar.
Industrial metal miners and energy stocks shed 2.4 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively, as metal and oil prices slid after top consumer China expanded Covid-19 restrictions.
NatWest tumbled 9.2 per cent to the bottom of FTSE 100 after the bank reported a flat quarterly profit, blaming bad loan charges from a worsening economic outlook and the cost of exiting its Irish business, Ulster Bank.
The domestically oriented FTSE 250 ended the day 0.9 per cent weaker but posted its biggest weekly gain in three months, largely driven by hopes for fiscal stability under the new government.
UK fashion retailer Asos and online supermarket Ocado Retail fell 2.6 per cent and 11.3 per cent respectively after gloomy holiday-quarter forecast from the world’s largest retailer Amazon.
EUROPE
After falling as much as 1.1 per cent earlier, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index recovered as the session wore on, closing up 0.1 per cent at a fresh five-week high. Germany’s Dax climbed 0.2 per cent while France’s CAC-40 index rose 0.5 per cent.
OMV shares jumped 9.3 per cent, topping the Stoxx 600 constituents after the Austrian energy group nearly doubled its core quarterly profit, driven by soaring oil and gas prices.
Sanofi rose 3.3 per cent after the French drugmaker forecast faster earnings growth this year on strong demand for its best-selling drug Dupixent and flu vaccines.
Volkswagen dropped 1.9 per cent after Europe’s top carmaker reported quarterly earnings behind pre-pandemic levels and said it expected deliveries to be similar to last year. Air France-KLM fared worse, slumping 13.1 per cent after the airline trimmed its capacity outlook for the winter.
NEW YORK
Apple shares jumped 6.2 per cent as the iPhone maker’s fourth-quarter results showed some resilience, but it cautioned revenue growth could see some pressure in the December quarter.
Amazon, meanwhile, joined other Big Tech firms that have disappointed investors this week by predicting a slowdown in sales growth for the holiday season amid a hit to the purchasing power of consumers. Shares tumbled 10.7 per cent. The online retailer is now on the brink of losing its spot in the trillion-dollar company club.
Intel jumped 7.4 per cent after the chip maker cut its capital spending forecast, while T-Mobile US rose 6.6 per cent after raising its annual forecast for wireless subscriber additions.
Twitter was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after Tesla chief Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company. Shares of Tesla were down 2.8 per cent.
— Additional reporting: Reuters
