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Date: Wednesday 20 Aug 2008
LONDON (ShareCast) - European markets opened higher on Wednesday with Tech shares on the rise following better-than-expected results from Hewlett-Packard.
The world's largest personal-computer maker's third-quarter net income increased 14% helped by strong demand for its notebooks in Europe and Asia.
A deal announced by STMicroelectronics and Ericsson also lifted sentiment. The two companies said they will combine some of its mobile-communications units.
Germany's largest maker of semiconductors Infineon Technologies and France’s Alcatel-Lucent are also in the blue.
In broker news, Commerzbank upgraded German mail group Deutsche Post to add from hold, saying the current slowdown in the economy is likely to only have a limited impact on the company.
Elsewhere, the Financial Times Deutschland reported this morning that Deutsche Post is to make a decision on the sale of Deutsche Postbank by the beginning of October.
The German Dax is 27 points higher at 6,310, the French CAC gained 29 points to 4,362, while the Swiss market rose 20 points to 7,135.