Picking the turn is never easy – and investors have seen their share of false calls recently. But there are growing signs that Europe’s telecoms equipment sector is over the worst. Ever since AT&T’s announcement of a three-year boost to its planned capital spending on wireless and wireline networks in November, the outlook has been improving. That move – worth an incremental $10bn at the time, although curbed a little since – spurred copycat action by T-Mobile. Further east, China Mobile, too, has guided to a 50 per cent increase in its 2013 capex, even if its domestic peers look less open-handed. The European equipment sector is up 45 per cent from July lows, and has even outpaced broad European market markers this year.
尋找拐點從來不是容易的事——而投資者最近也聽到了好幾次錯誤的呼聲。但越來越多的跡象表明，歐洲電信設備行業板塊已度過難關。自從AT＆T公司去年11月公佈了有關擴大無線和有線網路資本支出的三年刺激計劃以來，行業前景就已經在改善。此舉（當時相當於逐步增加100億美元，雖然此後又變少了一些）刺激T-Mobile採取了類似行動。在遠東，中國移動也將2013年的資本支出指引調高了50%，雖然其國內同行們看起來還沒那麼大方。歐洲電信設備行業板塊已從去年7月的低點上漲了45%，今年以來的漲幅甚至超過大盤股指。