European markets ended the week on a high note, rallying strongly and regaining all Thursday's lost ground. Frankfurt rose on tech stock buying and the Xetra DAX index added 192.94 at 7,414.68 to end the week with a net gain of 3.6 per cent.
Siemens and its offshoot Infineon drove ahead on strong results and broker optimism. Siemens jumped €11.40 to €163. Infineon rose €6.45 to €76 after Goldman Sachs lifted earnings estimates by 65 per cent for 2000.
Financials also rallied strongly. Deutsche Bank rose 79 cents to €73.90 and Allianz €16.50 to €423.30. Among industrials, truckmaker MAN gained €1.85 to €36.35. BMW led the activity charts after touching a low of €27.40 on the news that the planned disposal of its lossmaking UK Rover arm had been abandoned. The shares eventually ended 2 per cent or 60 cents lower at €29.60 in six million shares traded.
Paris rose 171.8 to 6,419.72 on the CAC-40 index with technology stocks leading the way up. Alcatel turned in the strongest performance among blue chips ahead of next week's results and on speculation that a big takeover announcement was imminent. The hot rumour denied by Ericsson was that Alcatel was poised to buy the Swedish group's mobile terminal operations. The stock jumped €21.60 or 9.3 per cent to €255.
Amsterdam took in a 6.2 per cent advance at Philips and at the close the AEX index was up 11.46 at 661.38. Tech stocks in general threw up sharp gains.
Helsinki shot up 5.1 per cent as Nokia continued to soar after first-quarter earnings by Ericsson appeared to reinforce the Finnish group's position as the world's leading and most profitable mobile phone manufacturer. The Hex general index rose 880.18 to 17,734.54 . Nokia rose €3.30 to €63.10 on the day.
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