The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.9pc at 617.12 points, also bouncing back from a drop earlier in the session.
In Dublin, the Iseq 20 closed up 0.91pc. The general recovery shrugged off any wider impact from a shocking day for car maker Stellantis, which saw its shares drop a massive 25.2pc. That was its biggest single-day drop on record and sent the broader European car sector index down 3pc.
The Peugeot and Fiat maker’s shares fell after it booked charges of around €22.2bn in the second half of last year as it scaled down electric vehicle development plans.
In sharp contrast, Norway’s arms maker Kongsberg jumped 15.6pc after reporting a bigger-than-expected rise in operating profit for the fourth quarter. It also won a $165m (€139m) order from Germany and Sweden for remote weapon stations.
The STOXX 600 closed the week with a 1pc gain, even after a sharp and sustained sell-off in technology and media stocks earlier this week focused on software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses now seen as vulnerable to being made obsolete, or at least less valuable, by AI.
An equities rally on Wall Street boosted global shares indices as investors crept back into US technology stocks
The sell-off hit the tech-heavy US harder.
“In the US, they are seeing a dislocation between software and hardware, driven by an AI theme that is boosting demand for memory, while creating challenges for software companies, and that’s the dislocation currently being priced by the market,” said Sophie Huynh, portfolio manager & strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management, adding that much of this uncertainty was spilling over to the rest of the world.
In Ireland, broad gains yesterday were led by Irish Continental Group (+3.97pc) and Kingspan (+2.81). Takeover candidate PTSB shares ended the week at €3.12 a share having touched €3.20 midweek and look to have settled well above January’s lows.
Elsewhere, an equities rally on Wall Street boosted global shares indices as investors crept back into US technology stocks.
Even so, Amazon.com shares fell sharply after it announced massive spending plans late on Thursday, upping the total for an estimated combined 2026 AI spending spree from Amazon, Microsoft , Alphabet and Meta Platforms to $600bn.
Gold steadied this week. Spot gold rose by 3.96pc yesterday.
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