Car makers and retailers drive markets higher

Eurostoxx 50:2,909.78 (+43.55) Frankfurt DAX:6,934.06 (+129.61) Paris CAC:3,967.33 (+53.60)

EUROPEAN STOCKS advanced yesterday, as car makers and retailers rallied and Portugal’s Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigned, bringing the country closer to getting a bailout from the European Union.

“Portugal will be the third member to join the rescue fund, but this was already expected by the market,” said Robert Halver, head of research at Baader Bank in Frankfurt.

The Stoxx 600 has rallied 74 per cent since March 2009.

Some 54 per cent of the 313 companies in the benchmark measure that have reported results since January 10th posted per-share earnings that topped the average analyst projection, according to Bloomberg.

National benchmark indexes rose in all of the 18 western European markets.

BMW and Daimler, the world’s largest makers of luxury cars, surged 4.2 per cent to €57.60 and 3.5 per cent to €49.02, respectively.

European car makers posted the best performance among 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600 yesterday, climbing 3.4 per cent.

BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, advanced 1.4 per cent to 2,358p and Rio Tinto, the third-largest miner, gained 2.5 per cent to 4,231.5p.

Xstrata rose 1.6 per cent to 1,445p.

Next jumped 4 per cent to 2,043p after the UK’s second-biggest clothing retailer said full-year revenue rose to £3.45 billion ($5.57 billion) from £3.41 billion a year earlier.

Kingfisher soared 7.2 per cent to 261.4p after the owner of BQ do-it-yourself stores posted 2010 pre-tax profit of £671 million compared with £547 million in 2009.

Hugo Boss, a German luxury clothier, increased 2 per cent to €53.90.

Brenntag increased 4.4 per cent to €73.64 as the chemicals distributor said full year after-tax profit increased to €146.6 million ($208.2 million) from €500,000.

Aalberts Premier Oil advanced 4.1 per cent to 1,989p.

Invensys fell 4.6 per cent to 341p after the maker of controls for Whirlpool washing machines replaced chief executive officer Ulf Henriksson with chief financial officer Wayne Edmunds. – (Bloomberg)