Europe’s markets saw gains Thursday.
The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1 percent to 1,565.18.
Madrid’s IBEX added 1.02 percent to 15,386, while the Dax gained 1.32 percent to 7,932.44 and the Paris CAC-40 jumped 1.51 percent to 5,760.3.
Telecommunications utilities did well on the day after France Telecom (Euronext: FTE; NYSE: FTE) reported that profits were up 4.3 percent and sales added 3.3 percent in the third quarter.
France Telecom was 8.68 percent higher to €25.80 for the best performance on the CAC-40, while Deutsche Telekom (FWB: DT; LSE: DEU; TYO: 9496) had the best day on the Dax with a gain of 4.03 percent to €13.94.
Dresdner Kleinwort raised its recommendation on France Telecom from “hold” to “buy”.
Alstom (Euronext: ALO) added 6.14 percent to €161.36 on a broker upgrade, while Bouygues (Euronext: EN) was 6.12 percent higher to €65.59 after Lehman Brothers began coverage with a rating of “overweight”.
Cosmetics manufacturer L’Oreal (Euronext: OR) had the worst day on the CAC-40, where it dropped 2.27 percent to €89.36 after UBS issued a downgrade from “buy” to “neutral” even though L’Oreal said that revenues in the third quarter were up by 7 percent.
Other losers on the session included truck maker Man (FWB: EDF1), which had the worst day on the Dax with a decline of 1.48 perent to €118.79.
Insurer Allianz (FWB: ALV; NYSE: AZ) was 1 percent lower to €150.13, while in the banking sector Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) dropped 0.91 percent to €28.33.