European equities markets saw increases on Monday, primarily on gains in the automobile manufacturing sector. Most brewers were also up, as were some parts of the chemicals industry. Other companies did not fare so well on the day.
The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.3 percent to 1,326.87 after a loss of 0.5 percent on Friday. Meanwhile, Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax gained 0.5 percent to 5,728.68 and in France the CAC-40 was up 0.3 percent to 4,923.19.
In the automobile manufacturing sector, Volkswagen was up 5.3 percent to €58.33 on the strength of an increased target price of €55, up from €38, by UBS. Porsche was also the recipient of an upgrade, from HVB, to “outperform” from “neutral”, sending its shares up 4.2 percent to €695,50. Porsche’s price target was also raised, from €688 to €718. Renault gained 4.2 percent to €83.05 and BMW gained 2.3 percent to €40.50.
Meanwhile, brewers Heineken and Carlsberg both also received upgrades to “buy” from Merrill Lynch. Heineken gained 2.1 percent on the day to €29.14, while Carlsberg was up 1.9 percent to DKr368. Carlsberg’s joint venture with Scottish & Newcastle as well as its cost-cutting opportunities, were among the reasons for its ratings bump. Bucking the upward trend, Belgian brewer Inbev was down 1.8 percent to €38.59 as Merrill Lynch downgraded it to “sell” on issues related to valuation.
In the chemicals sector, Swiss specialty chems company Clariant was up as much as 10 percent during the day and settled up 2.7 percent to €20.70 on news over the weekend that it is at an advanced stage in sale talks with private-equity firms.
In the pharmaceuticals sector, Roche was down 2 percent to SFr188.10 even though it said there would be no financial impact due to its suspension of patient recruitment for trials on Avastin, a colon cancer drug. The suspension was said to be on account of safety concerns.
Norwegian energy group Statoil dropped 3.4 percent to NKr170.50 after it reported that its fourth quarter operating profits were up less than had been anticipated.