Tech stocks among gainers on back of Apple enthusiasm

TECH stocks drove European shares up yesterday at the end of a volatile week, as investors drew encouragement from Apple becoming the world’s first trillion-dollar company while supportive earnings boosted banks.

Apple was a driver for the broader tech sector in Europe, with chipmakers – some of which supply the iPhone-maker – among the top gainers during yesterday’s session.

Analysts’ expectations of tech companies’ earnings per share have risen to their highest since 2000, when a bubble took sector valuations to excessive levels.

Tech helped push the pan-European Stoxx 600 index up 0.65pc.

European corporates have delivered 7.8pc year-on-year earnings growth for the second quarter so far, up on first-quarter gains, according to Thomson Reuters data.

“With global growth still robust, corporates reporting generally solid earnings, and inflation and interest rates at unthreatening levels, it’s unsurprising that our port- folios are still biased toward cyclical sectors like materials and industrials,” said Henna Hemnani, assistant multi-asset fund manager at Miton.

In Ireland, the Iseq Overall Index was 0.94pc higher for the session, at 6.790.59.

Movers included IRES-Reit, which said its first-half profit more than doubled to almost €70m as rental income jumped.

The company’s shares closed up 3.3pc at €1.42.

Shares in insurer FBD fell almost 2.9pc to €10.10 amid a report that Canada’s Fairfax has hired advisors to explore possibilities for its potential 19pc stake in the Irish company.

Shares in Ryanair recovered an earlier decline as it said it would agree to a mediator being appointed to deal with a dispute involving Ireland-based pilots. Its shares closed at €12.99. Billions of euro have been wiped off its market capitalisation in recent weeks.

Shares in embattled SwissIrish bakery group Aryzta fell 3pc in Dublin to €10.73.

The UK’s Ftse-100 rose 1.1pc. Germany’s Dax was 0.5pc higher, and France’s Cac-40 was up 0.3pc.