Telecoms help Eurofirst higher on day

In Europe on Wednesday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1 percent to 1,306.63. Despite the gain, the index was down 5.2 percent for the month, the largest monthly decline in over two years. The day’s advance came on gains in the telecommunications and steel sectors.

Banks were mixed on the day. Capitalia and Banca Intesa were both up on renewed rumors of a merger between the two Italian banks. Capitalia added 3.6 percent to €6.4650 and Intesa gained 2.2 percent to €4.5180. National Bank of Greece was also up, adding 6.4 percent to €32.24 on a positive first-quarter earnings report. Belgian bank Dexia, however, was down 1.8 percent to €19.16 when it said that it will purchase 75 percent of Denizbank in Turkey now, and will offer for the remaining 25 percent of the bank when it gets the approval of regulators.

The telecommunications sector was up after having performed badly since the beginning of the year. Telekom Austria added 0.1 percent to €17.41 after Deutsche Bank raised its rating from “hold” to “buy”. OTE (Hellenic Telecom) was up 1.8 percent to €17.30 after a positive earnings report and on positive comments from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, which reiterated its “buy” recommendation. Telefonica was up 2.4 percent to €12.77. Telenor gained 2.7 percent to NKr76.75 on the announcement that it has won a contract to provide automatic meter reading for a Nordic energy company.

Elsewhere in the sector, KPN was up 2.6 percent to €8.95, while Telecom Italia added 3.2 percent to €1.9910 and France Telecom gained 4.2 percent to €17.46.

In the steel sector, Corus added 2.2 percent to €5.70. While it reported that earnings in the first quarter were down from the same period last year, they were still better than had been expected. Arcelor, meanwhile, was up 1.4 percent to €33.30 even though shareholders are still in upheaval over its plans to merge with Russian company Severstal.

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