Shell rises more than 3% after strong quarterly figures: share benefits from war in the Middle East

Shell's share is skyrocketing today, after the oil company saw its quarterly profit double due to the war in the Middle East. With this, Shell is pulling the entire AEX, while exchanges in Asia and America are being hit by doubts about AI.

Shell is 3.21 percent higher around noon, making it the AEX's biggest riser. The main index of the Amsterdam stock exchange climbs 0.61 percent to over 1,142 points.

Chip machine maker ASML, the heaviest fund in the index, is holding back this advance with a loss of 0.36 percent.

Adyen, on the other hand, bounced back by 2.52 percent. That recovery is still little: the payment processor plunged more than 13 percent yesterday, after lowering its expectation for this year's operating profit margin from 55 to 50 percent.

Shell posted an adjusted profit of $10.8 billion, some €9.7 billion, in the third quarter. That's double the year before and more than the $10.3 billion analysts were counting on.

The engine behind those numbers are the refining margins, which climbed to record highs at Shell. That margin is the difference between what a refinery pays for crude oil and what it gets for diesel or kerosene.

The war has still narrowed the Strait of Hormuz and damaged refineries in the region. So there is less fuel on the market, while demand remains strong. Shareholders receive part of the loot back through a higher dividend.

The green figures in Amsterdam are particularly striking, because elsewhere red predominates. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, went down about 10 percent in trading last night after Wall Street closed.

Sales were slightly disappointing and the growth of search ads, the cork on which Google floats, is slowing down. Investors want hard evidence that the billions for AI translate into profit growth. As a result, strong cloud figures from Microsoft could not prevent the Nasdaq tech exchange from going down with it.

Seoul was also hit. The Kospi index, in which AI chipmakers weigh heavily, fell 2.2 percent after a strong gain a day earlier.

Samsung Electronics surrendered 5.4 percent. The chipmaker posted huge profit growth thanks to AI demand, but his plans to reward shareholders were disappointing.