Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 18th March 2025

ASIA

APAC stocks were mostly higher after the advances on Wall Street and with light catalysts heading into this week's central bank announcements, although some of the gains were capped as Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza. ASX 200 was underpinned at the open but then pared the majority of its initial gains with strength in energy and defensives partially offset by losses in tech and consumer discretionary. Nikkei 225 coat-tailed on recent currency moves and retested the 38,000 level to the upside with strength in Japanese trading houses after Berkshire Hathaway boosted its stake in Japan's five largest trading houses. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp were ultimately mixed with the Hong Kong benchmark significantly outperforming on tech strength and with Baidu leading the advances after its recent AI reasoning model launch, while the mainland struggled for firm direction in rangebound trade.

EUROPEAN CLOSES

CLOSES: DAX: +0.62% at 23,130, FTSE 100: +0.56% at 8,680, CAC 40: +0.57% at 8,074, Euro Stoxx 50: +0.78% at 5,446, AEX: +0.92% at 914, IBEX 35: +1.09% at 13,147, FTSE MIB: +0.95% at 39,022, SMI: +1.04% at 13,065.

SECTORS: Healthcare 1.48%, Energy 1.26%, Financials 0.91%, IT 0.80%, Utilities 0.74%, Consumer Stpl 0.71%, Industrials 0.62%, Telecoms 0.60%, Materials 0.43%, Consumer Disc 0.27%

FTSE 100

BT (BT/ LN) - Sunil Bharti Mittal has reportedly indicated that he is looking into increasing his holding in the Co., via FT citing sources. (FT) Currently has around a 24.5% stake

OTHER UK COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

Anglo American (AAL LN) upgraded to Sector Perform from Underperform at RBC

QinetiQ (QQQ LN) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Kepler

DAX

Allianz (ALV GY) - Co. is to sell its 26% stake in two JVs with Bajaj Finserv to Bajaj for around EUR 2.6bln. (Newswires)

Rheinmetall (RHM GY) - Ulrich Grillo, Supervisory Board Chairman, has sold shares in the Co. (Newswires)

Stada - Co. is reportedly pushing back its IPO until September, via Bloomberg. (Bloomberg) Follows reports that the listing could have occurred as soon as this week

Volkswagen (VOW3 GY) - Audi is to cut 7.5k jobs within Germany by 2029, cuts to be primarily in administration and development. Measures will save EUR 1bln/year over the medium term. (Newswires)

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

Fraport (FRA GY) - FY (EUR): EBITDA 1.3bln (exp. 1.3bln), Profit 501mln (exp. 455mln). Cargo volume +6.2% Y/Y, International Passenger Travel exceeded 2019. (Newswires)

HelloFresh (HFG GY) - DWS Investment has 2.73% of the total voting rights as of 12th March. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

CAC

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

ADP (ADP FP) - February Traffic: 26.5mln passengers, 6.2%. (Newswires)

Bollore (BOL FP) - FY (EUR): Revenue 3.1bln, Net Income 1.8bln, adj. EBITDA 1mln. Proposes a dividend of 0.08/shr. (Newswires)

Spie (SPIE FP) - Peugeot has initiated the sale of half of its stake in Spie. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

Rubis (RUI FP) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Kepler

PAN EUROPE

Leonardo (LDO IM) - Board has approved a new organisational structure. (Newswires)

Santander (SAN SM) - Co. plans to expand its US operations via a partnership with Verizon, allowing some customers to earn bill credits by opening high-yield savings accounts, WSJ reports. Santander aims to become a full-service digital bank in the US and is exploring additional partnerships. (WSJ)

BROKER MOVES

Endesa (ELE SM) upgraded to Overweight from Equal weight at Barclays

Iberdrola (IBE SM) downgraded to Equal weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley

OMV (OMV AV) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Berenberg

SMI

Kuehne und Nagel (KNIN SW) - Opened a new facility in Texas on the US-Mexican border. (Newswires)

Nestle (NESN SW) - Co. has recalled a limited quantity of Lean Cuisine and Stouffer's frozen meals on potential presence of foreign material. (Nestle)

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

DKSH (DKSH SW) - Purchased Taqkey Science and Quantum Biotech in Taiwan. (Newswires)

Julius Baer (BAER SW) - Co. is to enter the Italian onshore market, first branch will open in H1-2025. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

Ems Chemie (EMSN SW) downgraded to Reduce from Hold at Kepler

SCANDINAVIA

BROKER MOVES

US

CLOSES: SPX +0.69% at 5,677, NDX +0.55% at 19,812, DJI +0.87% at 41,847, RUT +1.18% at 2,068.

SECTORS: Real Estate +1.66%, Energy +1.57%, Consumer Staples +1.55%, Industrials +1.35%, Health +1.15%, Materials +1.15%, Financials +1.16%, Utilities +0.40%, Technology +0.18%, Communication Services +0.12%, Consumer Discretionary -0.44%.

18 Mar 2025 - 06:45- Fixed IncomeResearch Sheet- Source: Newsquawk