European shares, stuck in neutral for nearly two months, are likely to get a shot in the arm from corporate deal-making, which has posted the best start to a year since 2008 and so far is outweighing sluggish earnings expectations. Confidence in Europe's economy is pushing companies to loosen their purse strings and deploy the record levels of cash they hold. Telecom and healthcare have led the charge, but deals in sectors more closely linked to economic growth, such as capital goods and energy, are grabbing headlines.This week, the battle for French power company Alstom heated up with both General Electric and Siemens AG in the fray. Siemens also entered talks to purchase assets from Britain's Rolls-Royce."We're just at the very beginning of the process and we expect it to continue and to accelerate," said Patrick Legland, global head of research at Societe Generale."It's going to be tilted towards very capital-intensive industries - that is, industries where companies have to invest a lot to generate their revenue (and) are coming under increasing pressure from shareholders to add to their returns."
Siemens AG (Siemens) is a globally operating technology company with core activities in the fields of energy, healthcare, industry and infrastructure. Shares of SI traded higher by 2.23% or $2.88/share to $131.83. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $99.07 and as high as $139.28. On average, 445995 shares of SI exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 529934.
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