|
European commodities stocks slide as oil reaches three-month low...
PDQ - Fri, May 13, 2005 - 02:59 PM
European Stocks Including BP, BHP Billiton Fall; Nokia Climbs
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- European commodities stocks including BP Plc and BHP Billiton slid as oil reached a three-month low and raw-material prices had the biggest two-day fall in seven weeks.
``Any drop in commodity prices will directly cut into these companies' profits,'' said Dirk Thiels, who oversees $10.5 billion at KBC Asset Management SA in Brussels and has been shunning raw-material stocks since the start of the year. ``People are beginning to realize the prices won't be maintained and the shares are overvalued.''
Shares of technology companies such as Nokia Oyj and STMicroelectronics NV advanced, leading benchmarks to erase losses in the final half-hour of trading.
The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index added less than 0.1 percent to 260.15. The Stoxx 50 and Euro Stoxx 50 were also little changed, gaining 0.03 percent and 0.05 percent respectively. The three European gauges, which rebounded from drops of as much as 0.7 percent, still registered their fourth weekly decline in five.
Old Mutual was the Stoxx 600's biggest faller after the company said it's in talks to buy the Skandia AB, the biggest insurer in the Nordic region. Shares of Stockholm-based Skandia were sharpest gainer in the index.
Benchmarks declined in 10 of 18 Western European markets. Norway's OBX Index was the worst performer, decreasing 1.6 percent. Sweden's OMXS30 Index was buoyed by Skandia, while a gain for Nokian Renkaat Oyj helped the OMXH25 Index in Finland.
BP, Europe's biggest oil company, fell 0.4 percent to 533 pence. Total SA, Europe's third-largest oil company, lost 1 percent to 174.5 euros. BHP, the world's largest miner and Australia's No. 1 oil producer, slid 3 percent to 625 pence.
Oil, Metals Prices
Oil for June delivery reached $47.90 a barrel, the lowest since Feb. 18, on the New York Mercantile. Rising U.S. inventories and signs of slowing growth in global demand pushed the contract down 7.8 percent in the last three days.
Prices for gold and copper dropped to three-month lows amid concern demand from China may rise more slowly than expected. The Reuters-CRB index of 17 U.S.-traded commodities fell 2.2 percent in the last two sessions, the sharpest drop since March 23.
Technology shares rose after Dell Inc. and Nvidia Corp. of the U.S. forecast sales for this quarter that will beat estimates. Dell, the largest personal computer maker, and Nvidia, the third-biggest maker of computer-graphics chips, advanced in U.S. trading.
Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, added 1.5 percent to 13.50 euros. STMicroelectronics, Europe's second- largest maker of semiconductors, climbed 4.2 percent to 11.59 euros in Milan.
Skandia, ThyssenKrupp
The Stoxx 600 Technology Index gained 1.2 percent, the biggest gainer among the measure's 18 industry groups. The gauge tracking basic-resources stocks dropped 1.9 percent.
Skandia jumped 20 percent to 41.9 Swedish kronor. London- based peer Old Mutual said talks are ``at an early stage'' and may or may not lead to an offer. Old Mutual, which makes about three-quarters of its profit from South Africa, slumped 5 percent to 122.75 pence.
ThyssenKrupp AG, Europe's fourth-largest steelmaker, dropped 3.1 percent to 13.91 euros. Profit was 1.05 billion euros ($1.3 billion), short of the 1.12 billion euros analysts expected. The company said that, while global demand for steel will increase, growth rates will weaken.
Corus Group Plc, the U.K.'s biggest steelmaker, fell 4.7 percent 40.5 pence. Arcelor SA, the world's No. 2 maker of the metal, decreased 2.1 percent 15.12 euros in Paris.
Weekly Performance
The Stoxx 50 slipped 1.1 percent since May 6, while the Stoxx 600 lost 0.7 percent and the Euro Stoxx 50, a benchmark for the 12 countries sharing the euro, has tumbled 0.8 percent. Among the Stoxx 600's industry indexes, the measures tracking basic- resources and energy stocks fell the most this week, dropping 4.6 percent and 2.8 percent respectively.
European investors recoiled from stock mutual funds in March, according to combined statistics of groups such as Assogestioni in Milan. Investors in France, Germany, the U.K., Italy, Spain and Switzerland took a net 2.8 billion euros from stock mutual funds that month, the data show.
[...]
| Return to Board Index |
|
|
|
European commodities stocks slide as oil reaches three-month low...
PDQ - Fri, May 13, 2005 - 02:59 PM
|
|