(BFM Bourse) – The health report, often brilliant, sent by a number of listed French flagships has not changed the situation. In the red 4 days out of 5, including a decline of 0.26% on Friday, the CAC 40 fell 1.17% over the whole week, while tensions remained high between Russia and Ukraine.
Once again, the attempt to rebound in the Paris market fueled by solid publications (from Teleperformance or Ubisoft this Friday, after Kering, Schneider Electric or Carrefour the day before) came to an end, in the face of persistent if not increased tensions in Ukraine. The flagship index of the tricolor rating has turned around again to end down 0.25% at 6,929.63 points, in a trading volume of more than 4.4 billion euros. The weekly performance of the CAC 40 is thus down 1.17%, which is its 5th week of decline in the last 6.
The atmosphere was even more gloomy across the Atlantic, with declines ranging from -0.7% for the Dow Jones to -1.2% for the Nasdaq Composite around 6 p.m., while the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken declared on Friday to see in the outbreak of clashes in progress in the Ukrainian East a scenario of provocations designed by the Russians in order to justify an attack by Ukraine. The leaders of the pro-Russian provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk accuse Kiev of preparing an invasion. Antony Blinken is due to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov next week, but the US warns the talks will not take place if Russia invades Ukraine.
Hermès plummets, Teleperformance takes off again
Tossed about according to geopolitical events, the Parisian rating was also driven by annual results, including those of Renault, Hermès and Teleperformance. Those of the world’s No. 3 luxury goods company (No. 2 in terms of market valuation) Hermès were penalized (-4.1%) due to the slowdown in its growth in the last quarter because… its production capacities are struggling to keep up the surge in demand. The leather goods manufacturer also reported results that exceeded expectations with an unprecedented operating margin rate of nearly 40%.
Call center giant Teleperformance has assumed its status as a growth champion, reporting record growth in organic revenue in 2021 (+25.7%), which will exceed €7 billion. euros a year ahead of the target set in 2018. Net profit group share jumped 72% to 557 million, while the operating margin reached an unprecedented level. The group also announced objectives considered ambitious by analysts for 2025, which allowed a gain of 4.9% of the title.
Renault shares trimmed their gains to end up in balance, while the group returned to profits in 2021 (888 million euros) after two years in the red, the manufacturer having also reported a operating margin of 3.6%, well above its target of 2.8% and ahead of the 3% target for 2023.
Ubisoft on the rebound
The French video game publisher Ubisoft has for its part confirmed its annual objectives after a third quarter (of its staggered financial year) in line with expectations, which analyst Florent Thy-Tine of Midcap considers encouraging knowing that it is it was the “latest release at risk due to the favorable base effects to come as well as the extraordinary pipeline of games to launch”. The title rebounded 3.6% after dropping nearly 13% over the previous 3 sessions.
EDF again sold 2.35% on the announcement of a capital increase of 2.5 billion euros, subscribed up to 84% by the State – i.e. the share that the latter holds in the capital of energy company, which has also published a net profit of more than 5 billion in 2021, multiplied by 8 over one year.
The Franche-Comté specialist in connecting and assembly elements Lisi fell by 2.5%, its accounts having been penalized by the too late recovery of its first market, aeronautics
After a relative relaxation at the start of the day, oil prices rose again in the face of new clashes in the separatist region of Donetsk, Ukraine. The barrel of Brent recovered 0.56% to 93.49 dollars at the end of the day. On Forex, the euro weakened sharply for the same reasons (-0.26% to 1.1332 dollars). Bitcoin for its part returned to test the psychological bar of 40,000 dollars, down 0.86% to 40,364 dollars.
Guillaume Bayre – ©2022 BFM Bourse