The IPO of SAP subsidiary Qualtrics on the US technology exchange Nasdaq is a complete success. The first price was recorded at around 7.55 p.m. CET at 41.85 dollars - almost 40 percent above the issue price of 30 dollars. The share rose to 45.96 dollars at its peak. Qualtrics' total valuation of around 21 billion is now more than double the 8 billion dollars SAP paid for the US company, which specialises in customer experience software, in January 2019. Qualtrics' IPO had attracted strong interest from investors given the high demand for technology stocks. For this reason, SAP had raised the target price range several times from an initial 20 to 24 dollars at the time of the concrete IPO announcement at the end of December. On Wednesday, SAP CEO Christian Klein said in an interview that the offer was "massively oversubscribed". According to the prospectus, 51.7 million shares of the total 510.2 million will be issued. In addition, up to 7.75 million from an over-allotment option will be issued. This brings the issue value up to $1.78 billion. In July 2020, SAP had surprised with the announcement that it would take its subsidiary public.

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The Swiss stock market ended Thursday's trading somewhat lighter, but clearly recovered from the day's lows. The SMI lost 0.5 per cent to 10,850 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were eleven price gainers and nine price losers. 52.03 (previously: 61.28) million shares were traded. Investors tended to grab the previous day's losers and dump the winners. Swisscom, the day's winner on Wednesday, now lost 3.1 per cent. Nestle lost 1.0 per cent. On the other hand, banks, which had been reviled on Wednesday, were bought after bond yields in the USA recovered somewhat. CS Group rose 1.7 per cent and UBS 1.6 per cent. Meanwhile, profit-taking continued at Lonza. The shares of the pharmaceutical company, which manufactures the Covid 19 vaccine for the US group Moderna, among others, had already lost considerable ground on Wednesday despite good business figures and were now down a further 3.3 per cent. Swatch ended the day 0.8 per cent lower. Here, too, investors may have taken profits after the share has gained just over 65 per cent since its slump in March last year. Richemont, on the other hand, rose 1.7 per cent.

European equity indexes finished higher on Thursday, after recovering in the afternoon in parallel with the sharp rise on Wall Street, with the markets putting into perspective the delays in the Covid-19 vaccination campaigns. The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.1% to 403.4 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 each gained 0.9%. In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 rose by 0.3%, while the FTSE 100 in London fell by 0.6%. STMicroelectronics (+4.1%) announced that it expects revenues to increase by approximately 31.2% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, after reporting higher than expected revenues and gross margin for the fourth quarter of the year. For the first quarter, the semiconductor manufacturer is targeting net sales of $2.93 billion, up 31.2% year-on-year and down 9.5% sequentially, with a gross margin of approximately 38.5%. Solutions 30 rebounded by 10.7% although the American investment fund Muddy Waters Thursday maintained its accusations of fraud against the company and showed its serenity in the face of the threat brandished by the provider of digital assistance services to sue it for defamation. Prudential (-7.8% in London) is considering a capital increase from $2.5 billion to $3 billion to take advantage of growth opportunities in Asia. The British insurer has also indicated that it will split its Jackson National branch in the United States. Diageo's turnover (+3.2% in London) in the first half of the year clearly exceeded expectations, supported by a very robust performance in North America.

The US stock markets recovered somewhat from the previous day's losses on Thursday. The Dow Jones index rose by 1.0 per cent to 30,603 points, the S&P 500 also gained 1.0 per cent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite was up 0.5 per cent. Facebook exceeded analysts' forecasts for revenue and earnings in the fourth quarter of 2020. But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's statements on potential developments in ad targeting, or personalised advertising, did not go down well. The reason was that iPhone company Apple has been worrying Facebook for months with plans to give users more control over their privacy. The share closed 2.6 per cent weaker. Tesla slumped 3.3 per cent. The e-car maker posted its first annual profit in the company's history last year. In the fourth quarter, however, the group failed to meet market expectations in terms of profits. The share of video game distributor Gamestop fell by 31.8% after its recent surge. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it was monitoring the recent volatility in the stock and options market but did not specifically mention GameStop. American Airlines was up 9.3 per cent. The airline came through the fourth quarter of 2020 better than feared.

Asian stock markets turn lower in trading on Friday. The Shanghai Composite and the HSI in Hong Kong each lose 0.6 per cent. Japan's Nikkei-225 loses 1.6 per cent to 27,748 points. The Kospi in South Korea extends its losses to 2.6 per cent after the index was still up shortly after the start of trading.

U.S. bonds were not sought after in view of the strong equity markets. The yield on ten-year paper rose by 3.7 basis points to 1.05 per cent as prices fell.

Jefferies lowers Adecco target to CHF 50 (56) - Hold
Citi lowers Sanofi target to EUR 105 (111) - Buy
Berenberg raises Barclays target to GBP 180 (160) - Buy

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