With European benchmarks at record levels, the year's biggest individual winners point to two very different stories: the scramble to supply artificial intelligence infrastructure, and a recovery in heavy industry.
Soitec: up 414.5%
French semiconductor materials specialist Soitec is the best-performing constituent of the STOXX Europe 600 this year, gaining 414.5% between January and 5 August.
The rise sits oddly against the headline numbers. Annual revenue came in at €592 million, down 34% as the industry worked through excess inventory. Investors instead focused on evidence that the trough had passed: revenue from the company's photonics business passed $100 million for the first time, and free cash flow reached €63 million, well ahead of forecasts. Management expects revenue to return to growth in the current financial year.
ArcelorMittal: up 65.3%
At the other end of the industrial spectrum, the Luxembourg-based steelmaker has become one of the year's quieter winners, rising 65.3% to rank tenth on the index.
The group reported second-quarter revenue of $16.5 billion and underlying operating profit of $2.1 billion, describing it as its strongest European performance in three years.
The common thread
Second-quarter reporting across the region has broadly exceeded expectations, and enthusiasm for AI infrastructure has turned a narrow group of European technology suppliers into some of the best-performing stocks anywhere. The ranking covers companies with a market capitalisation of €1 billion or more, measured by share price performance through 5 August.
