Disturbing signals are piling up in the Ukrainian regions close to Russia. Despite Moscow’s repeated announcements assuring a continued withdrawal of its military forces from the Ukrainian border, the tension is far from subsiding. In the Donbass region, pro-Russians are crying out for the violation of ceasefire agreements. Denis Pushilin, separatist leader of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk (a breakaway state from Ukraine), says rebel authorities have begun evacuating civilian populations to Russia amid growing fears of conflict of scale. The prospect of a diplomatic outcome, which had reassured the financial markets in the morning, moved away Friday evening. A meeting is scheduled for next weekend between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. The former, however, conditioned the interview on the absence of Russian intrusion into Ukraine.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, the Bedroom 40 ends down 0.25%, at 6,929.63 points, in a business volume of 4.53 billion euros. Over five days, it drops 1.17%, making it its fifth week of declines since the 1er January. In the commodity market, oil prices continued to fall after hitting seven-year highs earlier in the week. This reversal seems linked to the hope of an upcoming Iranian nuclear deal, which could bring some 1.3 million barrels a day to the market.
Teleperformance and Hermès are doing the splits
On the corporate front, operators separated the wheat from the chaff in the new batch of earnings releases. Big winner of the day, Teleperformance won 4.89%. The outsourced customer service management specialist benefited from two drivers in 2021, the digitization of the market and the provision of Covid helplines on behalf of governments. The result is record turnover, above the threshold of 7 billion euros which was targeted for 2022. The group has set itself ambitious new objectives.
On his side, Renault (-0.04%) returned to profit last year, despite shortages of semiconductors that cut production by 500,000 vehicles. For 2022, the manufacturer aims an operating margin of at least 4% in 2022.
On the other side of the Cac 40 charts, Hermes International lost 4.14%. Its limited production capacity in leather goods and saddlery hampered growth in the fourth quarter. Revenue at constant exchange rates was €2.38 billion in the last three months of 2021, up 11% at constant exchange rates, compared to growth of 31.2% in the third quarter and 127% in the second.
Apart from the flagship index, Ubisoft took 3.54%. If the video game publisher saw its sales fall by more than 25% in the third quarter, they will be stable or, at worst, slightly down, over the whole of the 2021-2022 financial year.. The case also has a speculative aspect in an entertainment sector in full consolidation.
Lagardere gained 4.81%. Vivendi plans to raise the price of its takeover bid for the group’s shares for shareholders who wish to sell their shares immediately. The media giant announced in mid-December that it intended to file a takeover bid in February resulting from the acquisition of the shares sold by Amber Capital at a price of 24.10 euros per share.
At last, EDF dropped 4.1%. The electrician, which faces a low availability of its nuclear fleet and the tariff shield, announces a capital increase project of approximately 2.5 billion euros to restore its financial structure.
PC