Eurofirst up despite political turmoil

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 closed at 1,117.56 on Friday, a decline of 0.2 percent for the day but a 1.5 percent gain over the week.

On Wednesday it had closed at a three-year high of 1,120.59. This was strong performance in a week of bad political developments, with the continuing fall of the euro helping export-oriented stocks to perform especially well.

Higher crude oil prices helped the oil sector do well, as Royal Dutch rose 1.9 percent to €48.35, Total was up 1.7 percent to €182.60, and Eni advanced 1.5 percent to €21.17. The automobile manufacturing sector saw even bigger gains.

Fiat was up 9.1 percent for the week to €5.99, while Porsche was up 7.7 percent to €594.50 on a 35 percent rise in US sales last month. BMW gained 3.5 percent to €36.17, and DaimlerChrysler advanced 2.3 percent to €33.08. The semiconductor sector also did well this week. STMicroelectronics rose by 4.9 percent to €7.52.

Infineon gained 4.4 percent on the week to €7.52 on word that it had secured a contract to make security chips for German passports, and ASML was up to €13.55, a gain of 3.3 percent.

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