LONDON, United Kingdom (AP):
European stock markets ended higher Friday after United States jobs data suggested that the Federal Reserve may not raise interest rates, with plans from Philips Electronics and Anglo American to return cash to shareholders also well-received.
The German DAX Xetra 30 index rose 1.5 per cent to 5,723 and the French CAC 40 index added 1.2 per cent to 5,049. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 advanced 0.9 per cent to 5,889, not making up for losses Thursday after a surprise Bank of England rate hike.
The U.S. Federal Reserve appears less likely to follow in the footsteps of the Bank of England and the European Central Bank next week after non-farm payrolls rose a less-than-forecasted 113,000.
4.8 per cent climb
Anglo American, the world's third-largest metals company, climbed 4.8 per cent after announcing it would return US$5 billion (€3.9 billion) to shareholders and reporting a 52 per cent rise in adjusted operating profit.
Philips Electronics rose 1.7 per cent after agreeing to sell 80 per cent of its semiconductor unit to a consortium of private-equity investors led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Philips also said it will return €4 billion (US$5.1 billion) to shareholders by the end of 2007 and was looking to sell its LG Philips LCD and Taiwan Semiconductor stakes in a "responsible" manner.
"We are getting in value north of what had been allocated to this business by the analyst community in general," Chief Financial Officer Pierre-Jean Sivignon said in an interview. "It makes us say that it took a transaction like this to (make) more obvious the value of this particular business."
