Thursday October 25, 12:30 PM
European stocks bounce back
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LONDON (AFP) - European stocks rebounded strongly on Thursday following a late rally by US equity prices overnight, while telecoms provided the main focus for investors.
Nearing the half-way stage, London's FTSE 100 (news) index of leading shares was up 1.11 percent at 6,553.90 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 (Xetra: news) jumped 1.12 percent to 7,916.45 points and in Paris the CAC 40 (Paris: news) advanced 1.14 percent to 5,739.27.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares added 0.91 percent to 4,396.78 points.
The European single currency stood at 1.4302 dollars after striking a record high 1.4347 dollars on Monday.
US stocks ended flat Wednesday, having recovered from steep losses during a volatile session in which housing and credit troubles were highlighted in weaker-than-expected existing homes sales figures and a massive write-off by US finance giant Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER - news) .
On Thursday, Japanese share prices closed down around half-a-percent for a second day running as investors refrained from active trading ahead of a raft of corporate results, dealers said.
In Europe, telecoms stocks were in focus after France Telecom (Paris: FR0000133308 - news) posted better-than-expected profits for the third quarter, while Swedish telecommunication equipment maker Ericsson (Stockholm: ERICB.ST - news) confirmed a profit warning.
In Paris, France Telecom jumped 6.53 percent to 25.29 euros -- a gain which helped lift British rival Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L - news) by 3.82 percent to 185 pence in London.
"France Telecom has been rising substantially because it's not exposed to the dollar (and) because it's not a cyclical stock," said Yann Azuelos, an analyst at French broker Meeschaert.
"On top of that it's published results that are slightly above consensus ... with a third quarter that shows good trends."
Meanwhile in Stockholm, Ericsson underperformed a rising market, slumping by 1.15 percent to 18.94 Swedish kronor after the group posted sharply lower third quarter earnings in line with last week's profit warning.
Ericsson also announced that its chief financial officer, Karl-Henrik Sundstroem, was leaving the company with immediate effect, amid fierce criticism in the media that management was not on top of the situation.
The Swedish group reported a net profit of 4.0 billion kronor (434 million euros, 620 million dollars) and an operating profit of 5.6 billion kronor, both down by 36 percent from a year ago.
Sales rose however by six percent to 43.5 billion kronor.
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