Europe: Shares rise off 7-week low as telecoms earnings impress

[LONDON] Encouraging earnings from telecoms companies put European shares on the front foot on Tuesday, helping them recover from a seven-week low hit in the previous session.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.2 per cent by 0720 GMT, also helped by gains in British retailer Tesco after the UK regulator approved its US$4.9 billion takeover of wholesaler Booker.

Telecom and tech sector strength helped German and French benchmarks gain 0.4 per cent, while euro zone blue-chips were up 0.3 per cent.

German telecoms firm Drillisch was up 3.7 per cent after it reported a 9.9 per cent rise in nine-month revenues.

Vodafone was another standout stock in the sector, rising 4 per cent after upping forecasts for full-year earnings growth after a strong first half.

Altice bucked the sector trend, sinking 7.2 per cent after Morgan Stanley cut its price target on the stock by 34 per cent, adding to pressure on the shares which are already down 46 per cent this year.

Britain's biggest retailer Tesco jumped 4.8 per cent after receiving regulatory approval for its takeover of Booker.

The latter's shares also rose 4.9 per cent.

Stronger than expected results also boosted Simcorp and Alstom, while asset manager Intermediate Capital Group soared 10.5 per cent to the top of the STOXX index after reporting record inflows.

This earnings season has delivered surprisingly violent share price moves stocks after results, Goldman Sachs strategists said.

Earnings-day price moves have been more than 3.5 times the average daily move - the most extreme results reactions the bank had data for.

As the earnings season neared its end, MSCI euro zone companies were tracking 9.9 per cent year-on-year earnings growth in U.S. dollar terms, and 62 per cent of companies in the euro zone index had beaten or met earnings estimates.

REUTERS