Europe Flat As Pharma Stocks Plunge

Ivaylo
27 Oct, 2001
New York City

Losses in pharmaceuticals and advertising company WPP offset gains in tech stocks on Friday. Tech stocks were boosted by a strong performance the US market, as after the US close, Microsoft reported strong third quarter numbers. AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company, retreated as Credit Suisse lowered its recommendation and brought the market lower. By mid morning, the FTSE 100 eased slightly, Frankfurt Xetra Dax was also marginally better, while the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.1%.

[R]6:30AM European stocks marginally better Friday, as pharma stocks dip.[/R]
European markets were broadly flat by mid morning on Friday. the FTSE 100 eased slightly to 6,182.7, Frankfurt Xetra Dax was also marginally better at 6,286.34, while the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.1% to 5,426.07.

Advancers

Telecoms led the advance on Thursday upbeat earnings from Telenor and France Telecom. Meanwhile, Telekom Austria was said to be considering buying a stake in Greek Hellenic Telecom, known as OTE, when the Greek government sells a stake early next year.Telekom Austria gained 2.9%, while OTE added 1%.

Telenor, which performed strongly yesterday, added a further 1.7%, while France Telecom gained 0.6%. Sector peers Deutsche Telekom and Spanish Telefonica gained 1.5% and 1.1% respectively.

Chip stocks were higher, with Infineon up 1.1% and Franco-Italian group STMicroelectronics adding 1%. ASML, the Dutch maker of chip manufacturing equipment gained 1.5%. Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone goup, gained 1.2% after announcing a network contract win in Ukraine.

Decliners

UK pharmaceuticals groups AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline led the decline after downgrades from Credit Suisse. Astra shed 1.9%, while Glaxo fell 2.6%.

Oil and gold

Crude oil futures advanced on Friday, recovering to some extent from a sell-off by some traders who were locking in gains made when prices surged earlier this week. The front-month December light, sweet crude contract on the NYME was up 23 cents to $60.59 a barrel. Brent crude at London ICE Futures exchange rose 26 cents to $61.03 a barrel.

Gold opened Friday at a bid price of $594.00 a troy ounce, down from $594.30 late Thursday.

Currencies

The euro edged down against the U.S. dollar Friday after news that orders to U.S. factories surged last month by the greatest amount in more than six years. The euro bought $1.2678 in morning European trading, compared with $1.2693 in New York late Thursday. The British pound fell to $1.8882 from $1.8907. The dollar was also higher against the Japanese yen, rising to 118.49 yen from 118.39 yen.

[R]5:00AM Gold and silver prices advance Thursday, as the dollar weakened.[/R]
December gold advanced $9 to close at $599.80 a troy ounce on the NYME, while December silver added 35 cents to $12.24 an ounce. December palladium was more restrained for most of the day before ending up $3.40 to $326.50. Most-active December copper finished down 0.45 cent at $3.40 per pound.

December light, sweet crude oil lost $1.04 to close at $60.36 a barrel. November heating oil declined 3.90 cents to end at $1.7000 a gallon. November unleaded gasoline settled down 2.86 cents to $1.5637 a gallon. November natural gas slipped 19.6 cents to finish at $7.497 a million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, December Arabica coffee futures closed 0.75 cent higher at $1.0760 a pound, with March up 0.70 cent at $1.1155. March futures for raw sugar in foreign ports dipped 0.08 cent to finish at 11.82 cents a pound.