European equities strengthened on US investments

The European equities market benefited from good news coming from the United States, ending the week on a positive note.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 2.5 percent on the week to 1,086.5. 0.5 percent of the rise came on Friday.

Events in the U.S. automobile sector also helped the European carmaking sector. Kirk Kerkorian offered cash for 28 million shares of General Motors and both GM and Ford were downgraded to junk status by Standard & Poor’s.

On this news, Fiat shares gained 9.8 percent for the week to end at €5.63. Volkswagen was up 4.5 percent for the week to €33.68, while DaimlerChrysler was up 3.7 percent to €31.47 for the week, and Renault was up 3.4 percent on the week to €66.90.

Meanwhile, in the semiconductor sector, U.S. company Intel, the largest maker of memory chips in the world, announced a forecast of 10 percent sales growth for 2005.

The Thursday announcement helped send the European semiconductor sector up. Infineon was up 9.8 percent for the week to end at €7.06 on Friday. This came after the company hit a low of €6.40 on April 29.

The French-Italian company STMicroelectronics rose 3.3 percent for the week to €11.25. ASML, which makes chipmaking equipment, rose 6 percent on the week to end at €11.78. Nokia continued to rise on a good first quarter report and was up 7.1 percent on the week to stand at €13.20.

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