Novas medidas do Governo pressionam contas em 0,6% do PIB

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By Alison Tudor

LONDON (Reuters) - European stocks nosed up on Friday as results from telecom equipment giant Ericsson beat expectations, calming some of the fears about demand prompted by Nokia's weak figures and drab earnings outlook a day earlier.

"The stark contrast between Nokia's dire numbers yesterday and Ericsson's positive surprise this morning should see Ericsson continuing to outperform today," said Phil Sparks, an analyst at HSBC Securities.

He said in a note he was considering swapping his investment recommendations on Nokia and Ericsson.

Analysts noted that demand for telecom equipment remains weak and only those companies that can cut costs fastest and most efficiently deserve a share price premium.

Chemicals outperformed after results from sector heavyweight Akzo Nobel, bolstering confidence that companies are coping with the soft dollar.

By 4:51 a.m. EDT, the FTSE Eurotop 300 index was up 0.31 percent at 861 points, while the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index gained 0.08 percent to 2,451 points.

U.S. stock futures edged higher, suggesting Wall Street may reverse some of Thursday's fall.

Investors are concerned that second-quarter earnings have been hit hard by the soft dollar and sluggish economic growth, as results from mobile handset leader Nokia demonstrated on Thursday, and will not justify the double-digit run-up in share prices since mid-March.

"Fundamentals from a company perspective continue to decline. Analysts have downgraded top-line growth forecasts as we expected, and the current reporting season is likely to bring this to even greater prominence," said Rolf Elgeti, a strategist at Commerzbank Securities in London.

ERICSSON PROVIDES RELIEF

The world's biggest producer of mobile networks Ericsson moved swiftly higher in pre-market trade after the group reported a much smaller than expected second quarter loss and said it was determined to return to the black this year despite falling market demand. Ericsson shares rose 23.4 percent.

Other technology equipment firms rose in Ericsson's wake.

France's Alcatel was 4.5 percent firmer.

However, Nokia was 0.23 percent weaker as brokers downgraded the stock after Finland's technology giant warned that a soft dollar and consumer reluctance to shell out for fancy phones will whack sales and earnings in the third quarter.

The DJ technology sector bounced two percent, bolstered by the Ericsson news and partially recovering from its near-eight percent fall on Thursday, its biggest one-day plunge in over a year.

Chemicals and pharmaceuticals group Akzo Nobel was 11 percent higher after the Dutch group reported a smaller than expected 20 percent drop in second-quarter earnings, sending its shares up despite the firm's still gloomy outlook.

French heavy engineering firm Alstom was 3.6 percent weaker after posting an 18 percent drop in first-quarter sales and saying new orders for its ships, trains and gas turbines also plunged.

Auto stocks braked on caution ahead of a raft of earnings results next week from sector leaders such as Germany's DaimlerChrysler and France's Peugeot.



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