M&A boost helps European shares stay at one-year high

European shares held around one-year highs on Thursday, supported by mergers and acquisitions-related optimism, with Johnson & Johnson's $30 billion deal to buy Actelion lifting shares in the Swiss biotech firm.

Actelion surged 19.4 per cent after the US healthcare giant’s move to make an all-cash purchase that includes spinning off the Swiss firm’s research and development pipeline. The acquisition gives J&J access to the Actelion’s line-up of high-price high-margin medicines for rare diseases.

DUBLIN

The Irish market of leading shares ended lower at the close, down 43.14 points to 6.531.40. Financial stocks were among the main movers, with

Bank of Ireland

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up 1.5 per cent to 26.5 cent and

Permanent TSB

gaining 3.4 per cent to €2.77.

It was a relatively quiet day for Swiss-Irish food group Aryzta, which slumped nearly 32 per cent to €28 on Tuesday after issuing another profit warning. Shares were 2.4 per cent higher in Dublin at €27.30, but were flat in Switzerland.

Recruitment firm CPL was up 1.7 per cent to €5.71, having trading higher earlier in the day. About 800,000 shares in the jobs agency were traded, a high volume for the firm, which reported a 7 per cent rise in first-half profits to €8.1 million. Insurer FBD was up 3.4 per cent to €8.01, while Iseq heavyweight CRH was down nearly 1 per cent to €33.71.

LONDON

The FTSE 100 index and the pound edged down on Thursday after failing to receive a boost from robust economic data showing that Britain has yet to suffer a post-Brexit vote slowdown. London’s top flight closed down 2.94 points to 7,161.49, with consumer-focused firms among the biggest fallers.

Unilever was among those pulling the FTSE 100 down after revealing that currency headwinds dragged on full-year earnings. The Marmite, Dove soap and PG Tips firm said annual net profit rose 5.5 per cent to €5.5 billion, but revenues dropped 1 per cent, while underlying sales rose by a lower-than-expected 3.7 per cent. Shares in the group were down 157.5 pence to 3,191 pence at the close.

Whitbread shares dropped 159 pence to 3,900 pence after the Costa Coffee owner revealed a slowdown at its restaurants arm. The group reported a 1.5 per cent fall in like-for-like sales at its restaurants, which include Beefeater and Brewer's Fayre.

Drinks giant Diageo was in the ascendancy after cheering rising profits thanks to a triple tonic from the Brexit-hit pound, robust Scotch sales and a strong US performance. The maker of Guinness, Captain Morgan rum and Johnnie Walker Scotch saw operating profits jump 28 per cent to £2.1 billion in the six months to the end of December.

EUROPE

The STOXX 600 added 0.2 per cent, building on strong gains seen in the previous session when the pan-European index ended at its highest level since end-December 2015. Germany’s DAX rose 0.4 per cent to its highest since May 2015, while the broader European market also got help from some positive earnings reports.

Franco-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics rose 7.6 per cent after posting in-line results for the final quarter of 2016, driven by solid phone and car-part sales and improved factory utilisation.

Intrum Justitia was up 6.9 per cent after the Swedish debt collector's fourth quarter operating profits came in above market expectations.

WALL STREET

The Dow Jones Industrial Average stayed firmly above 20,000 in early trading on Thursday, after breaching the milestone a day earlier, while losses in tech stocks weighed on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite indexes.

The S&P technology index's fall led the decliners, weighed down by Qualcomm and Alphabet . Qualcomm fell 5.1 per cent to $54.04 after the chipmaker reported a lower-than-expected rise in quarterly revenue. The stock was the biggest drag on the two indexes. Alphabet, which was scheduled to report results after the bell, was down 0.7 per cent at $852.16.

Verizon Communications fell 1.1 per cent to $49.20 after the Wall Street Journal reported the company is exploring a combination with cable company Charter Communications. Charter was up 8.9 per cent at $338.17. –

Additional reporting: agencies