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Bloomberg

Technology shares took center stage in Europe as Ericsson AB’s cost-cutting plan and Iliad SA’s better-than-estimated sales helped the region’s benchmark index rebound from the biggest drop in four weeks.

The Swedish maker of wireless networks and the French phone carrier rose at least 3 percent, pushing the Stoxx Europe 600 Index 0.5 percent higher to 336.83 at 11:17 a.m. in London. All industry groups on the gauge rose, except energy producers and utilities. The Stoxx 600 fell 1.1 percent yesterday as banks slid amid concern that prosecutions and penalties will widen in a probe into the rigging of exchange-rate benchmarks.

“Markets are concentrating on company news at the moment, rather than macroeconomic or geopolitical news,” Herbert Perus, who helps oversee $36 billion at Raiffeisen Capital Management, said by phone from Vienna. “Stocks of companies with good numbers are proceeding higher and those with bad numbers are underperforming. This is a good sign for normalization of market-participant behavior.”

The Stoxx 600 has rebounded 8.7 percent from this year’s low on Oct. 16 as the Bank of Japan unexpectedly boosted its stimulus and some companies reported better-than-estimated results. The gauge trades at 15.3 times the projected earnings of its members, more than a fifth higher than the 10-year average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures climbed 0.3 percent today, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.4 percent.

Technology Shares

A gauge of technology companies posted the best performance among the 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600.

Ericsson rose 3.2 percent after announcing a plan to cut costs by 9 billion kronor ($1.2 billion). The measure, which includes an unspecified number of job cuts, will take full effect in 2017, the company said.

Iliad gained 4.7 percent after saying third-quarter revenue rose to 1.06 billion euros, compared with the average analyst estimate of 1.05 billion euros. The number of mobile-phone subscribers increased 5.3 percent to 9.58 million in the three months ended Sept. 30.

KBC Groep NV climbed 6.9 percent, the biggest rally in 15 months, after the Belgian lender posted third-quarter net income that beat analyst projections.

RWE AG fell 2.4 percent as nine-month profit fell 60 percent. Aegon NV slid 6.3 percent after posting quarterly net income that was about a third of the average analyst estimate.