Europe's semiconductor companies, having defied bad news from the US earlier in the week, yesterday failed to escape the ill effects of Intel's sales warning. A tumbling Nasdaq added to the pressure in the afternoon.
STMicroelectronics, which had rallied 25 per cent during the first few sessions of the month, shed 7.6 per cent to €36.50. Infineon was off 4.8 per cent to €38.27 and ASM Lithography, the Dutch producer of chipmaking machinery, fell 3.3 per cent to €26. But German rival Aixtron jumped almost 10 per cent to €88 after reporting better than expected results for 2000.
Media company Vivendi Universal, formed from the merger of France's Vivendi, its pay TV group Canal Plus and Canada's Seagram, reported operating profit up 40 per cent to €2.57 billion for 2000, which was below forecasts. But Jean Marie Messier, the chairman, said he was "very confident" that media and communications would achieve revenue growth targets of 10 per cent for 2000-2002. The shares edged up 0.7 per cent to €71.
Shares in Vivendi Environment, the utilities arm that released results on Thursday after the market closed, rose 3.6 per cent to €46.15. Deutsche Bank raised its rating on the company from "market perform" to "buy" with a price target of €54.
Rival French utilities group Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux rose 2.9 per cent to €162.60 after it called off talks with Air Liquide about a merger. While the deal would have boosted Suez by adding high margin industry services businesses, the market thought the price it was paying was too high. Shares in Fortis, the Belgian financial group, rose 1.6 per cent to €29.77 amid relief that Suez, a major shareholder, would not be selling its stake to fund the Air Liquide deal. Air Liquide itself fell 5.9 per cent to €160.
SAirGroup recouped 1 per cent to SFr202 after the losses of the previous two sessions. It said it was likely to appoint a head to its airline division on Monday, to succeed Moritz Suter, whose departure on Wednesday unnerved investors.
