Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 23rd January 2025

ASIA

APAC stocks traded somewhat mixed albeit with a mostly positive bias after the gains on Wall St where the S&P 500 printed a fresh record high and the Nasdaq led amid strength in tech and communications, while outperformance was seen in mainland China after Beijing announced efforts to support the stock market in a capital markets briefing. ASX 200 was pressured by underperformance in miners following several quarterly production updates, with tech and telecoms the only sectors that showed some resilience. Nikkei 225 climbed above the 40,000 level following recent yen weakness and mostly better-than-expected trade data. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp were both initially underpinned with brokerage stocks lifted after the capital markets briefing in Beijing where officials from the CSRC, financial regulator and PBoC announced efforts to boost stocks with China to direct medium and long-term funds towards market investment, while there will be at least hundreds of billions of yuan of new long-term capital for A-shares every year from state-owned insurance companies. However, the Hong Kong benchmark eventually gave back the gains.

Chinese Stocks - China CSRC chief said China will direct medium and long-term funds towards market investment and there will be at least hundreds of billions of yuan of new long-term capital for A-shares every year from state-owned insurance companies, while a pilot scheme of insurers buying stocks is to be implemented in H1 2025 with scales of at least CNY 100bln. Furthermore, public funds are to increase A-share holdings by at least 10% annually over the next 3 years and China will guide fund companies to buy their own equity funds using some of their profits. China's financial regulator vice head said they will encourage major state insurers to use 30% of their newly generated premium incomes for stock investment, while a PBoC official said they will expand the scope and increase the scale of liquidity tools to fund share purchases at the proper time. (Newswires)

Hyundai Motor (005380 KS) - Q4 (KRW) net 2.5tln (exp. 2.7tln), oper. profit 2.8tln (exp. 3.2tln), rev. 46.6tln (exp. 44.6tln). Co. is to invest KRW 16.9tln this year. (Newswires)

SK Hynix (000660 KS) - 2024 (KRW) net 19.8tln, oper. profit 23.5tln, rev. 66.2tln; Q4 (KRW) net 8tln (exp. 5.9tln), oper. 8.1tln (exp. 8tln), rev. 19.8tln (exp. 19.7tln). Q4 DRAM average selling price up about 10% vs Q3. Q4 NAND average selling price down mid-single % vs Q3. 2024 HBM sales increased more than 4.5 times. 2025 DRAM demand expected to rise mid-to-high teen % Y/Y. Strong server chip demand momentum to continue, driven by AI. Plans Q1 DRAM shipments low-teen% decrease vs Q4. Plans Q1 NAND shipments high-teen% decrease vs Q4. Expects HBM 2025 revenue to grow over 100% Y/Y. HBM continued its high growth in fourth quarter, marking over 40% of total DRAM revenue. SK Hynix expects 2025 capex to rise slightly from 2024, adds conventional DRAM market to go through gradual correction this year and expects to supply 16-layer HBM4 chips in the second half of next year. (Newswires)

SoftBank (9984 JT) - OpenAI and SoftBank commit USD 19bln each to Stargate data centre venture, according to The Information. (The Information)

EUROPEAN CLOSES

CLOSES: DAX: +1.03% at 21,259, FTSE 100: flat at 8,545, CAC 40: +0.86% at 7,837, Euro Stoxx 50: +0.80% at 5,207, AEX: -0.02% at 914, IBEX 35: +0.16% at 11,883, FTSE MIB: -0.57% at 35,854, SMI: +0.63% at 12,188, PSI: -0.96% at 6,506.

SECTORS: IT 1.71%, Industrials 1.06%, Consumer Disc 1.04%, Healthcare 0.63%, Financials 0.22%, Materials -0.10%, Energy -0.23%, Consumer Stpl -0.35%, Telecoms -0.92%, Utilities -1.53%

FTSE 100

BP (BP/ LN) - FT Opinion article: "If BP is to stay independent, it must show investors it can make things happen, rather than gazing into the future. There is such a thing as being too smart." (FT)

Ex-dividends - Games Workshop Group (GAW LN) will trade without entitlement to its latest dividend payout. (dividenddata)

WPP (WPP LN) - CEO Read says they have "looked at" switching their primary listing to New York, but have no plans to do so at the moment. On the valuation divided between the UK and US, Read says "we have to get closer: WPP as a company to the US and the UK as a country to the US. (FT)

OTHER UK COMPANIES

Boohoo (BOO LN) – Frasers (FRAS LN) asks Boohoo again to provide full details of Umar Kamani’s (son of Boohoo founder) consultancy agreement, including the renumeration that they are receiving. Frasers remains “deeply troubled by Boohoo’s governance and lack of transparency”. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

JD Sports (JD/ LN) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citi; cuts PT to 95p (prev. 105p)

DAX

Brenntag (BNR GY) – Appointed Thomas Reisten to management Board as CFO, as of Apr 1 2025. (Newswires)

Bayer (BAYN GY) – Signs a new exclusive distribution agreement with Ecospray to market a biological liquid nematicide sourced from garlic. (Newswires)

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

K+S (SDF GY) – Co. says Bank of America (BAC) holds 3.13% of total voting rights as of 20 Jan 2025. (Newswires)

Puma (PUM GY) - Q4 (EUR): Prelim EBIT 109mln (exp. 132mln), Revenue 2.3bln (exp. 2.27bln, prev. 1.98bln Y/Y). Affirms guidance. Net Income 24mln (exp. 52mln). FY24 EBIT margin 7.1%, sales 8.817bln (exp. 8.816bln), +4.4% Y/Y, in line with outlook. FY: EBIT 622mln (exp. 640mln), net income 282mln (exp. 311mln). Initiates cost efficiency programme with objective to achieve an EBIT of margin of 8.5% by 2027. (Newswires) Shares -7% pre-market

BROKER MOVES

Heidelberg Materials (HEI GY) downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays

CAC

Technip Energies (TE FP) – Selected by Uniper to provide the feed of Connah’s quay new combined cycle power plant with carbon capture in the UK. (Newswires)

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

Ubisoft (UBI FP) - Electronic Arts (EA) prelim Q3 (USD): Net bookings 2.22bln (exp. 2.51bln); Total net revenue approximately 1.88bln (exp. 1.99bln); FY net bookings between USD 7.00-7.15bln (prev. 7.5-7.8bln). (Newswires) EA shares fell 11.7% after hours.

BROKER MOVES

PAN EUROPE

Auto Names - European Commission executive VP Ribera said officials are still "shaping" options for an incentive programme to bolster EV demand. (FT)

ASML (ASML NA) - The Netherlands expects US President Trump to keep pressing to restrict ASML’s exports of chip-making machines to China, according to Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof cited by Bloomberg. (Bloomberg)

EDP (EDP PL) – Installed capacity EBITDA at 29,077 MW at end-Dec, +9% Y/Y. (Newswires)

Sabadell (SAB SM) – Board decided to transfer HQ to Sabadell, Catalonia. (Newswires)

Stellantis (STLAP FP/STLAM IM) - Co. plans US investments of over USD 5bln, according to FT. (FT)

Saipem (SPM IM) – Tacit renewal of shareholders’ agreement between Eni (ENI IM) and CDP Equity. (Newswires)

Telecom Italia (TIT IM) – Agreed to extension until 15 March to allow finalisation of preparatory steps for final decision on offer for Sparkle. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

SMI

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

Galencia (GALN SW) – FY (CHF): Revenue 3.92bln, +5% Y/Y. Affirms FY24 guidance. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

SCANDINAVIA

Essity (ESSITYB SS) – Q4 (SEK): Net Sales 37.80bln (exp. 37.82bln), EBITDA 4.58bln, -1% Y/Y. Proposes dividend of SEK 8.25/shr (prev. 7.75/shr). FY: Sales 145.54bln (exp. 145.6bln) (Newswires)

Swedbank (SWEDA SS) – Q4 (SEK): Net Income 8.47bln (prev. 8.32bln Y/Y), NII 12.3bln (exp. 11.6bln), RoE 15.8% (18.4% Q/Q), CET1 Ratio 19.8% (20.4% Q/Q). Notes that credit quality is solid. “Proposes 2024 dividend of 21 Kronor and 70 Ore/shr”(Newswires)

Tryg (TRYG DC) - Q4 (DKK): Pretax profit 1.03bln (exp. 1.15bln), Insurance Revenue 9.73bln (exp. 9.75bln). (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

US

CLOSES: SPX +0.61% at 6,086, NDX +1.33% at 21,853, DJIA +0.30% at 44,157, RUT -0.61% AT 2,304

SECTORS: Utilities -2.18%, Real Estate -1.76%, Energy -1.75%, Materials -0.79%, Financials -0.41%, Consumer Staples -0.26%, Health -0.25%, Industrials -0.17%, Consumer Discretionary -0.07%, Communication Services +1.14%, Technology +2.49%.

Alcoa (AA) - Q4 EPS 1.04 (exp. 1.01), Q4 revenue USD 3.49bln (exp. 3.45bln). Q4 alumina production -2% sequentially to 2.39mln metric tons. Aluminum segment production +2% sequentially to 571,000 metric tons, primarily due to continued progress on the Alumar, Brazil smelter restart; third-party shipments of alumina +12% sequentially, primarily due to increased trading; Aluminum total shipments were flat sequentially at 641,000 metric tons. Sees FY25 Alumina production between 9.5-9.7mln metric tons (vs 10.03mln MT), a decrease from 2024 due to the curtailment of the Kwinana refinery. FY25 alumina shipments seen between 13.1-13.3mln metric tons, consistent with 2024. The difference between production and shipments reflects trading volumes and externally sourced alumina to fulfil customer contracts due to the curtailment of the Kwinana refinery. Alcoa sees FY25 total Aluminum segment production between 2.3-2.5mln metric tons, an increase from 2024 due to smelter restarts. FY25, aluminum shipments seen between 2.6-2.8mln metric tons. In Q1, sees Alumina Segment adj. EBITDA with a sequential favourable impact of USD 30mln due to the absence of a charge to write down certain inventories to their net realisable value, partially offset by the typical Q1 impacts from the beginning of maintenance cycles and lower shipments.

Steel Dynamics (STLD) - Q4 EPS 1.36 (exp. 1.28), Q4 revenue USD 3.87bln (exp. 3.95bln). Ahead, it expects increased demand across its platforms in 2025, citing stabilised steel pricing and strong customer optimism. The company sees benefits from domestic steel demand, public infrastructure investments, and trade actions reducing unfair imports. New value-added coating lines and aluminum production growth are also key drivers for 2025.

23 Jan 2025 - 06:45- Exclusive- Source: Newsquawk