1st May 2017 -IAM
Jean-Louis Richard, Senior Financial Analyst
The for the markets positive results of the first round of the French presidential elections have kind of masked other factors for the rising equity markets: the companies are publishing their results for the first quarter, providing good figures, especially with regards to growth.
The logistic company Kühne Nagel for example, which gives the heartbeat of the world wide trade, shows growth in transported volumes of 9% per sea and 15% per air. Givaudan, which provides large food companies, positively surprised with a comparable growth of 3.5%. The chemist Sika published sales growth of 11%, of which 9% with constant exchange rates. Clariant, another chemist provider of many industries, shows sales increase of 9%, of which 6% are the result of increased volumes. The dental equipment producer Straumann published an expansion of 15%, Logitech, active in electronics, shows a plus of 17%. And so on…
If this tendency should continue, as seem to expect the managers, benefits of companies should progress in 2017 at a higher rhythm than sales. This would be very positive for equity markets.
