The Paris Bourse broke its all-time high last month, driven by the new S&P 500 record on Monday. The market is doing better than resisting the explosion of contamination with the Omicron variant, which did not hamper the “Santa Rally” (end of year rally). While the new strain is highly transmissible and can escape certain antibodies, it may also boost immunity against the Delta variant and reduce the risk of severe infection, according to a study published by two doctors at the Africa Health Research Institute, based in South Africa.
Trading volumes remain limited, however, with barely 400 million euros traded on Cac 40 securities and mainly focused on balance sheet wrapping operations three days before the end of the year. The weakness of the activity is also reinforced by the absence of the British participants while the London Stock Exchange is closed for Boxing Day.
At 11:25 am, the Cac 40 gained 0.55% to 7,179.47 points after a record at 7,183.35. The previous all-time high was reached on November 19 at 7,183.08. The index is currently gaining 29.2% in 2021, which would be its best annual performance since 1999 (+ 51.1%). The contracts futures March on US indices gained between 0.3% and 0.5%. On Monday, the S&P 500 signed its 69e record at the end of the year.
No holiday curfew
Global financial centers seem to want to resist the wave of infections with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and the change of course of the main central banks towards a tightening of their monetary policy in an attempt to curb inflation. France and the United Kingdom have refrained from imposing a curfew or confinement for the end of the year celebrations by favoring vaccination. Paris in particular lowered the deadline for the vaccine booster to three months and announced the return to remote work by recommending a fourth day of telework from January 3.
Today’s macroeconomic agenda is limited to the S&P CoreLogic index of house prices in 20 US cities for the month of October. It will be released at 3 p.m.
Oil services in the spotlight
Largest increase in SRD, the oil services group CGG 3.6% advance in the wake of rising crude prices. The market continues to bet that demand will offset disruptions from the Omicron wave. Vallourec takes 4.3%, Technip Energies takes 2.2% and TotalEnergies 0.5%.
Among other notable variations, Eurofins Scientific takes another 1.8%. Note also the record of Teleperformance (+ 1.2%), as well as those of Michelin (+ 0.8%), Great (+ 0.8%) and Schneider Electric (+ 0.5%).