Ericsson spurs technology sector

A positive first-quarter earnings report from Ericsson spurred the technology sector to advance in the European markets at midday on Friday. Ericsson was up 4.3 percent on the report that their first-quarter earnings were above expectations.

Other technology stocks also advanced. Nokia rose 1.9 percent, STMicroelectronics was up 1.9 percent, ASML advanced by 1 percent, and Siemens was 1.3 percent ahead.

These gains helped the FTSE Eurofirst 100 to advance by 0.6 percent to 1,070.04. In Frankfurt, Xetra Dax was up 0.6 percent to 4,217.27. In Paris, meanwhile, the CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent to 3,970.54.

The news was not all positive, however. L’Oreal, the French cosmetics group, saw its shares decline 5.6 percent after its release of a disappointing first-quarter earnings report after the markets closed Thursday. The negative report caused almost all analysts to downgrade L’Oreal’s stock.

In the biotechnology sector, Serono also issued a negative first-quarter earnings report which caused its shares to retreat by 5.2 percent. On the other hand, Solvay, the Belgian chemicals and drug company, was up 2.2 percent as Citigroup upgraded it from “hold” to “buy.” Only last week, Merrill Lynch had downgraded Solvay to “sell.”

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