Hints and tips:
...German insurer Allianz climbed 1.8 per cent to €87.15 after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to “outperform” from “neutral”....
...Credit Suisse published positive research on the German sector following proposals for changes to tax laws paving the way for insurers to rebuild capital....
...Germany’s Allianz slipped 4.6 per cent to €109.13, while French insurance group Axa lost 4.8 per cent to €18.90....
...UBS fell 4.5 per cent to SFr35.22, while Credit Suisse lost 2.6 per cent to SFr56.85 and Julius Baer sank 3.2 per cent to SFr78.45....
...France’s CNP rose 5.6 per cent to €82.46 and domestic peer Axa climbed 6.7 per cent to €24.53, while in Germany Munich Re gained 4 per cent to €128.87 and Allianz jumped 5.4 per cent to €132.22....
...Allianz, the German insurer, fell 1.8 per cent to €160.91 after using gains from investment to boost first quarter profit that was hit by European winter storms....
...Credit Suisse and UBS both raised their price targets while Merrill Lynch upped its rating from “neutral” to “buy”....
...Allianz of Germany and France’s Axa were among the top European insurers reporting strong results....
...Allianz, which Merrill downgraded to “neutral” from “buy”, fell 4.4 per cent to €129.69, while Axa slid 4.7 per cent to €27.10....
...Allianz lost 0.7 per cent to €125.15 and ING fell 0.2 per cent to €28.68 in spite of JPMorgan reiterating an “overweight” rating....
...Munich Re was the biggest gainer in the Eurofirst 300, climbing 5.2 per cent to €116.60 on talk the German reinsurer was selling its 5 per cent stake in Allianz, up 1.9 per cent to €125.85....
...Swiss Re was off 1.6 per cent to SFr80.50, Zurich Financial fell 2.2 per cent to SFr213.90 and Germany’s Allianz was 1 per cent lower at €103.30....
...Elsewhere among the insurers, Germany’s Allianz rose 0.9 per cent to €115.57 while Swiss Re edged 0.2 per cent higher to SFr86.65....
...In the wider insurance sector, Aegon, which reports on its first quarter today, was down 2.1 per cent to €9.73, while Allianz shed 2.2 per cent to €92.50 and Zurich Financiallost 2.5 per cent to SFr203.90...
...Swiss managed a 0.3 per cent rally to SFr76.40, but Munich Re fell a further 0.7 per cent to €83.78, while Allianz lost 1.4 per cent to €91.21 and ING dropped 1.2 per cent to €21.22....
...“We believe that H&M is reaching the end of a period when it has benefited from a number of benign conditions allowing it to develop its gross margin,” said Tony Shiret at Credit Suisse First Boston....
...“Our economists expect eurozone rates to rise sooner rather than later,“ said Credit Suisse First Boston in a research note on European banks....
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