By Adam Haigh - Feb 2, 2012 7:03 PM GMT+0700
European (SXXP) stocks were little changed as Glencore International Plc’s talks to buy Xstrata Plc (XTA) boosted mining companies, offsetting declines at Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Unilever. U.S. index futures were little changed, while Asian shares rose.
Xstrata jumped 10 percent after confirming that Glencore made an approach about an offer for the coal, copper and nickel miner. Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc (BP/), Europe’s two biggest oil companies, fell more than 1 percent. Unilever dropped 4 percent as the world’s second-largest consumer-goods maker posted revenue growth that missed analysts’ estimates.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.1 percent to 259.82 at 12 p.m. in London, paring an earlier gain of as much as 0.4 percent. The gauge yesterday rallied to its highest level since Aug. 1. Futures contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in March advanced less than 0.1 percent today. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 1.2 percent.
“You have a lot of liquidity and strong companies with strong cash flows thinking valuations are strong right now,” said Virginie Maisonneuve, head of global equities at Schroder Investment Management Ltd., which oversees $284 billion. “We could see a wave of mergers and acquisitions, but it has to be at the right valuation. It has to be a marriage that makes sense. The good deals will go through.”
The Stoxx 600 rose 4 percent in January for its second consecutive month of gains. The gauge has rallied 21 percent from its lowest level last year as the European (SXXP) Central Bank boosted lending to banks and U.S. economic reports exceeded estimates.
U.S. Jobless Benefits
Applications for unemployment benefits in the U.S. fell to 371,000 in the week ended Jan. 28 from 377,000 the previous week, according to the median economist estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The Labor Department will release the figures at 8:30 a.m. in Washington today.
Xstrata surged 10 percent to 1,236.5 pence after confirming that Glencore has held talks to buy the shares in the company that it doesn’t already own. That would add mines from Africa to Asia to the world’s largest listed commodity trader. Glencore has made an all-share offer, Zug, Switzerland-based Xstrata said today in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. Glencore already holds a 34 percent stake in Xstrata and the rest of the company is valued at 21.9 billion pounds ($35 billion) based on yesterday’s closing price.
Glencore’s shares added 5.4 percent to 455.15 pence. The company said in a statement that there’s no certainty of an offer.
Novo Nordisk, Benetton
Novo Nordisk A/S (NOVOB) rose 4 percent to 707 kroner after the world’s largest insulin maker posted net income that climbed to 4.69 billion kroner ($829 million) from 3.95 billion kroner a year earlier. That exceeded the 4.06-billion kroner average estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Benetton Group SpA (BEN) surged 16 percent to 4.68 euros after the Benetton family, the company’s largest shareholder, said it will offer 276.6 million euros ($364 million) for the shares it doesn’t already own in the company. Edizione Holding SpA, which owns 67 percent of Benetton, will offer 4.60 euros a share, it said in a statement last night on the Italian bourse.
Shell fell 1.7 percent to 2,231 pence after Europe’s largest oil company reported fourth-quarter net income of $6.5 billion, compared with profit of $6.79 billion a year earlier. Excluding one-off items and inventory changes, profit missed analysts’ estimates. BP, Europe’s second-biggest oil producer, lost 1.3 percent to 476.7 pence.
Unilever Shares Slide
Unilever dropped 4 percent to 2,004 pence as the maker of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Lynx deodorants said it expects difficult economic conditions and elevated commodity costs to persist this year.
“We cannot recollect a more challenging year as 2011,” Chief Financial Officer Jean-Marc Huet said in a teleconference with reporters today. “The global economy is still in poor shape and we expect it to continue.”
Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) lost 1.5 percent to 33.54 euros after saying that profit tumbled 76 percent in the fourth quarter as the euro area’s sovereign-debt crisis curbed trading. Net income fell to 147 million euros from 601 million euros a year earlier. That missed the 556 million-euro average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
TeliaSonera AB (TLSN) slid 1.1 percent to 45.68 kronor after reporting fourth-quarter profit that missed estimates as customers in the Nordic countries continued to abandon their fixed-line telephones. Net income fell to 4.97 billion kronor ($738 million) from 5.31 billion kronor a year earlier, Stockholm-based TeliaSonera said in a statement today. Analysts had estimated profit of 5.2 billion kronor.
AstraZeneca Plc (AZN) sank 4.3 percent to 2,957.5 pence after saying 2012 will be challenging for the industry. It’s guidance for this year was “disappointing,” according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Keyur Parekh.
To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in London at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment