Strong Earnings Lift Market
April 27, 2011
The 25-share AEX index closed at 554.80, up 5.35 points from Wednesday's close of 549.45. The dollar stood at 1.6681 guilders, up from late Wednesday's 1.6645 guilders. The Dutch stock market is highly dollar sensitive as a number of index companies derive much of their overseas revenues in dollars. ABN Amro Bank, which accounts for 8.26% of the AEX index, gained 2.10 guilders to 95.40 guilders. The largest bank in the Netherlands saw its net profit rise 36.3% to 1.69 billion guilders in the first half of the year, thanks to an overall rise in division revenues, especially from investment banking. Analysts had expected net profit of about 1.5 billion guilders. ABN Amro's rise boosted other financial equities. Bank-insurer ING closed 1.00 guilder higher at 54.00 guilders. Energy giant Royal Dutch, which accounts for 10% of the index, benefited from the higher dollar and gained 2.90 guilders to settle at 251.40 guilders. Information systems company Getronics also gained on strong earnings. It reported a 35% increase in net profit for the first half of the year to 54.5 million guilders. Shares of Getronics closed at 37.90 guilders, up 1.90 guilders. Shares of food retailer Royal Ahold settled higher, after the lead manager of its recent share offering, Goldman Sachs, exercised its overallotment option to purchase an additional 3.3 million common shares of Royal Ahold. Ahold's shares gained 1.70 guilders to close at 88.70 guilders.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
