BLBG: European Stocks Advance as SAP, Actelion Results Beat Forecasts
European stocks advanced for a second day as companies including SAP SE and Actelion Ltd. posted better-than-forecast results.
SAP climbed 2.8 percent after reporting first-quarter sales that topped estimates as a weaker euro boosted revenue. Actelion added 4.5 percent as it increased its full-year forecast after first-quarter profit beat expectations.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.4 percent to 408.47 at 10:33 a.m. in London, after earlier increasing as much as 1.3 percent. Shares pared gains as a measure of German investor confidence unexpectedly fell for the first time in six months in April. Stocks rebounded Monday from the year’s biggest weekly decline, with commodity shares leading gains after China’s central bank boosted stimulus measures.
“A weaker euro is always helping European shares and we had some good earnings numbers from companies such as SAP, which really helps,” said Benno Galliker, a trader at Luzerner Kantonalbank AG in Lucerne, Switzerland. “It seems European companies are better than expected. There’s a good mood in the markets after the selloff last week.”
Among other shares moving on corporate news, L’Oreal SA gained 1.1 percent after the world’s largest cosmetics maker posted a 14 percent increase in first-quarter sales as a weaker euro helped compensate for sluggish growth in western Europe.
Publicis Groupe SA rose 5.6 percent after the owner of advertising agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi reported first-quarter sales soared a better-than-expected 32 percent as the weaker euro and the acquisition of Sapient Corp. added to earnings.
Sky Gains
Sky Plc rose 4.1 percent. Rupert Murdoch’s European pay-TV provider reported a 5 percent increase in nine-month revenue as it signed up the most customers in the U.K. and Ireland in 11 years during the third quarter.
Credit Suisse Group AG fell 3 percent after posting a 26 percent decline in revenue from underwriting and advisory services. First-quarter profit at the bank rose a better-than-forecast 23 percent.
Rio Tinto Group lost 2.3 percent after reporting quarterly iron ore production expanded a less-than-estimated 12 percent. A measure of commodity producers posted the worst performance of the 19 industry groups on the Stoxx 600.
Investors will also watch developments in Greece. Euro-area finance ministers meet this week to review what policy changes the Mediterranean nation can deliver by mid-May as it seeks to unlock new aid payments and avoid a default.
The Greek government issued a decree Monday that forces local governments to transfer cash balances to the central bank, as debt to the International Monetary Fund and month-end salary payments come due.
