Markets ended the week in upbeat mood as investors tracked the opening gains for US equities and talk turned to a possible interest rate cut next week by the European Central Bank.
Technology stocks were among the best performers within the FTSE Eurotop 300 index on a day when the buyers returned in some strength, courtesy of an upbeat trading statement from Cisco Systems. The US computer networking giant, which said business trends were stabilising, provided hard-pressed TMT sectors with an instant ray of sunshine, especially telecommunications, which finished the day with a sector gain of 3.7 per cent.
Deutsche Telekom shot ahead in hectic trading. Concern about heavy selling (from September 1st) of newly issued Telekom stock by former VoiceStream shareholders were put to one side as the shares surged 9 per cent to €18.11 in volume of 24.3 million.
France Telecom added 6.5 per cent at €40.69, Telefonica 3.1 per cent at €13.40 and Telecom Italia 2.8 per cent at €9.77. KPN failed to share in the excitement, slipping 0.3 per cent to €3.69.
Elsewhere, Siemens and Infineon both rose more than 7 per cent to €59.59 and €26.77 respectively. Alcatel jumped 6.5 per cent to €18.75 and STMicroelectronics 6 per cent to €38.15.
Zurich Financial had another volatile session with an upgrade from Goldman Sachs helping the shares rebound from the low for the year that they fell to on Thursday. The stock rallied 10.6 per cent to SFr531 as Goldman lifted its recommendation to "outperform" and set a target price of SFr575.
Postive broker comment also got behind Bayer. Commerzbank is upping to "accumulate" from "reduce". It says the shares at €33 are close to its worst-case scenario sum-of-the-parts value. Bayer ended 1 per cent better at €34.63.
Utility Suez rose 3 per cent to 38.23 on speculation that it could enter the Dow Jones Stoxx 50 next month.
