Technology and telecom stocks shrugged off the sales warning from US chipmaker Intel, feeling they had already priced in enough profit warnings. Instead they chose to focus on the improving picture on interest rates, with yesterday's latest US jobs data doing nothing to harm it. A strong start on the Nasdaq helped.
German chipmaker Infineon rose 3.6 per cent to €51.20 and electronics components maker Epcos was up 6.3 per cent at €114.30. Electronics and engineering group Siemens rose 4 per cent to €150.75, making a gain of almost 20 per cent in the last two-and-a-half weeks. Business software provider SAP was 6.7 per cent higher at €181.50.
Among telecoms, France's Bouygues rose 4.1 per cent to €58.10 in spite of saying it had ended talks aimed at getting Telecom Italia Mobile to raise its stake in Bouygues's telecoms unit.
The words "fundamental rerating" were not far from analysts' lips after the fourth consecutive set of disappointing monthly sales from Carrefour, the French supermarkets giant. The figures released after market hours on Thursday prompted an instant round of negative comment from brokers and sent the shares steeply lower in heavy trading volumes.
The shares fell headlong during the morning, tumbling to within a whisker of December's €61 low and casting a cloud over the food retailing sector. They closed at €63.15, down 3.5 per cent in 4.4 million shares traded. Dutch rival Ahold, which also has a big foreign sakes base, shed 3.1 per cent at €34.08.
Investors' new-found enthusiasm for cyclical stocks saw good demand in motors. Volkswagen added 3.1 per cent at €58.17, BMW 3.3 per cent at €34.90 and Renault 4.8 per cent at €54.70. DaimlerChrysler, weak since mid-summer amid a strong flow of bad news from the US arm of the business, was also in favour on news that the group plans steep cuts to its $40 billion US components budget. The stock added 1.9 per cent at €48.35.
Likewise, chemicals companies were strong. German group Degussa-Huels rose 8.5 per cent to €36.18, its highest price since January, after Lehman Brothers raised its rating on the stock from "neutral" to "outperform".
Oils faltered as international commodity prices dipped back under $27 a barrel. Total Fina Elf lost 3.7 per cent at €147.8.
