LONDON -- A stream of positive earnings figures has managed to help the London markets triumph over the gloom perpetuated by the overnight fall on Wall Street. By midmorning, the FTSE 100 was up 68.7 points at 6455.8 and the Techmark gained 25.2 to 3707.6.
It was a good day for the drug companies as
Glaxo Wellcome
(GLX)
posted pretax profit of nearly
1.6 billion ($2.4 billion), that's nearly
500 million more than the market expected. This lifted the shares 62p to
19.06. Merger partner
SmithKline Beecham
(SBH) - Get Report
tagged along with a gain of 28p at 852 and
AstraZeneca
was up 77p at
29.71.
British Telecom
(BTY)
posted some pretty awful results, but because everything in this business is relative and the results weren't as bad as expected, the shares rose 19p to 887. Pretax profits for the three months to June 30 fell 27% to
561 million from
772 million last year.
ICI
(ICI)
announced first-half profit of
224 million -- at the top end of market estimates -- and the shares moved up 10p to 490.
Europe's other bourses were also modestly higher early Thursday as earnings reports continued to roll in. The
CAC 40
in Paris was up 74.45 at 6567.5 and the
Xetra Dax
in Frankfurt was up 12.6 at 7314.7. The Neuer Markt's tech-heavy
Nemax 50
index was 3.12 higher at 6184.9.
Deutsche Telekom
(DT) - Get Report
declined after announcing first-half profit fell to 700 million euros ($659 million) from 950 million euros a year earlier. However, by midday investors decided Deutsche Telekom was oversold, causing the stock to rise 0.50 euros to 51.59.
Telco equipment
Alcatel
(ALA)
rose 3.85 euros to 81.35 after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter profit.
France Telecom
(FTE)
was up 2.40 euros at 144.40 and a day after the resignation of embattled chairman, Juan Villalonga,
Telefonica
(TEF) - Get Report
was 0.74 euros higher at 24.48.
Big German techs were higher, as
Siemens
(SMWAY)
rose 2.62 euros at 175.22,
Infineon
(EPC) - Get Report
rose 1.96 euros to 79.40 and software maker
SAP
(SAP) - Get Report
was up 4 euros at 244.
