PARIS, December 14 (Reuters) – The stocks to follow on Wednesday on the Paris Stock Exchange and in Europe:
* INDITEX ITX.MC – Zara’s parent company on Wednesday reported a 24% rise in nine-month net profit on strong sales that weathered slowing global demand for apparel.
➦ Inditex (Zara) posts 9-month profit up as prices rise
* TUI TUIGn.DE TUIT.L returned to profit for its full fiscal year after two years of losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the travel group said it expects a strong year next year.
* MERCEDES-BENZ MBGn.DE on Wednesday presented a more than €1 billion plan to adapt its production network to drivetrain systems for electric vehicles, including battery assembly, starting in 2024.
* VOLKSWAGEN VOWG_p.DE has terminated the contract of its main designer, Klaus Zyciora, and is calling on Porsche’s chief designer, Michael Mauer, to replace him as of January 1, the business daily Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday.
* ENGIE ENGIE.PA, UNIPER UN01.DE, FORTUM FORTUM.HE, TOTALENERGIES TTEF.PA, SHELL SHEL.L – The European energy ministers, meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, failed to seal a definitive agreement on a capping of gas prices across the European Union, after months of divisions among the 27 on the interest of this measure in the fight against the energy crisis.
➦ No agreement yet in EU on gas price cap
* DANSKE BANK has pleaded guilty to bank fraud and agreed to have two billion dollars seized from it as part of a settlement reached with American justice following a major investigation into money laundering, announced Tuesday the Department of Justice.
* HSBC HSBA.L announced on Wednesday that it would no longer provide new loans or financing for projects involving new oil and gas fields.
* ROCHE ROG.S announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Pfizer PFE.N as part of an awareness campaign on the detection and treatment of COVID-19 in the United States.
* AB SCIENCE ABS.PA announced on Tuesday that it had received a notice of insufficiency from Health Canada for masitinib in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, thus forcing the laboratory to communicate to the Canadian health agency additional information within 90 days.
(Written by Laetitia Volga and Claude Chendjou, edited by Kate Entringer)