(BFM Bourse) – The Paris Stock Exchange closes for the first time in its history above 8,100 points, driven by the ambient optimism linked to the latest figures for American inflation. Vallourec was undoubtedly the stock market hit of the day with the arrival of ArcelorMittal as a key shareholder.
The Paris Stock Exchange is on cloud nine and on a new level. The CAC 40 offered itself an additional gain of 0.62% this Wednesday evening at 8,137.51 points, erasing its short-lived record from Tuesday evening at 8,094.07 points. And, as often in recent days, the Parisian index also broke its all-time high during the session, with a new record at 8,156.64 points shortly before 3:30 p.m.
In the absence of macroeconomic data to get their hands on, investors are still clinging to the American inflation figures for the month of February, published Tuesday afternoon. This data has some good and some bad.
Certainly inflation accelerated slightly to 3.2% over one year compared to 3.1% in January due to the rise in energy prices. But “the resumption of the decline in housing inflation after its surprise increase in January is reassuring, as is the fact that food inflation and goods inflation are now completely normalized”, judges Xavier Chapard of LBPAM. “The problem remains the persistence of inflation in domestic services, which the American Federal Reserve (Fed) will not appreciate because it is the part of inflation most linked to tensions in the economy and the market work,” he adds.
For now, the market continues to count on a first cut in key rates from the Fed next June. The CME’s FedWatch tool also estimates the probability of a rate cut in three months at 65%.
Vallourec, the right tip
On the value side, Vallourec stood out with a gain of 7.4% after announcing an upcoming change in its reference shareholder. The Apollo fund sold its stake of more than 28% to ArcelorMittal. This leads analysts to anticipate a future takeover bid from the steelmaker for Vallourec.
BNP Paribas appreciated by 2.1% after announcing that it expected a higher profit in 2024 than last year, thus surpassing analysts’ expectations.
Accor rose 2.6%, supported by an analyst rating from Jefferies who switched to buy on the file, the financial intermediary having seen potential in several key regions of the company.
Rubis gained 1.5% after announcing its intention to sell its 55% stake in its company specializing in the storage of liquid products to its partner I Squared Capital. Oddo BHF considers this operation unsurprising as the group had previously indicated that this participation was not strategic in the long term.
“We perceive it positively in the sense that it allows the group to simplify its scope of activities (which does not benefit from synergies) to increase its resources to finance significant investments in renewable energies,” explains the bank.
At the level of the smallest stocks, the green chemistry group Metabolic Explorer sank by 56.9% after announcing on Tuesday the request for the opening of a safeguard procedure.
On other markets, the euro gained 0.2% against the dollar to 1.0946 dollars. Oil accelerated its gains after the release of weekly US crude oil inventories. The latter fell against all expectations by 1.5 million barrels during the week ending March 8. The May contract on North Sea Brent therefore gained 1.8% to 83.36 dollars per barrel while that of April on WTI listed in New York gained 2% to 79.07 dollars per barrel.
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2024 BFM Bourse