(BFM Bourse) – The Parisian index ended slightly higher on Tuesday. Bouygues’ cash generation delighted the market, unlike that of Eurofins.
The Paris Stock Exchange managed to regain some enthusiasm during the day. The CAC 40 finally ended this Tuesday’s session up 0.2% to 7,948.40 points and is approaching the psychological threshold of 8,000 points.
The session remained relatively quiet in terms of economic data. Investors took note of a drop in orders for durable goods in the United States of 6.1% in January. The American consumer confidence index measured by the Conference Board fell to 106.7 in February, compared to an index expected at 115.1 by economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal.
But the main indicators of the week, such as the second estimate of American GDP or data on inflation in Europe and the United States, will be published in the coming days.
For now, investors have mainly dissected the new wave of company publications.
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Eurofins suffered
On the downside, Eurofins fell (-6.7%) after publishing a cash flow significantly lower than expectations and slashing its dividend to 50 cents per share compared to 1 euro for 2022.
Edenred lost 5% despite annual results in line or even better than expectations. A financial intermediary believes that the market was able to sell the stock due to lack of more details and more “offensive” comments from management on the investigation the group is the subject of in Italy. The group’s CEO, Bertrand Dumazy, repeated during a conference with analysts that the group was at the disposal of the Italian authorities and that he was “confident” about the outcome of this investigation.
Conversely, Bouygues made strong progress, gaining 8% after revealing 2023 annual results deemed “robust” by Stifel.
Excluding SBF 120, the performance of GTT was remarkable, with an increase of 8.9%. The group specializing in cryogenic membranes for LNG transport reported Monday evening 2023 results that exceeded market expectations. Above all, it indicated that it was counting on a very strong increase in its revenues and gross operating profit for 2024.
We will also note the variation of Casino (+43.3%) which does not necessarily mean much given the group’s now very thin capitalization (73 million euros) and its nominal “penny stock”. The commercial court validated Monday evening the financial restructuring of the group and its takeover by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. In a press release, Rallye, the future former parent company of Casino, recalled that once this restructuring was completed it would lose control of the group, holding only 0.1% of the capital. The consequence is that Rallye’s unsecured debt will become payable by its creditors, and the group will then find itself in suspension of payments. Rallye indicated that it would request the opening of judicial liquidation proceedings.
On other markets, the euro is almost stable against the dollar at 1.0849 dollars. Oil is growing. The April contract on North Sea Brent gained 0.7% to $82.24 per barrel, while that of the same maturity on WTI listed in New York gained 1% to $78.34 per barrel.
Julien Marion – ©2024 BFM Bourse