THE TREND
(Boursier.com) — Calmly, due to a public holiday, the CAC40 is timidly resuming its march forward after two days of consolidation. At mid-session, the Parisian index advanced 0.35% to 8,197 points in low volumes. It must be said that many investors are absent on this Pentecost Monday, that the macro program of the day is blank and that the business news is hardly more extensive. We will nevertheless note a very good order for Airbus, the publication of Ryanair’s results, an M&A operation in video games while Atos continues to be talked about. In Asia, the “historic” measures taken by Beijing to restore the real estate sector, the main brake on growth in the world’s second largest economy, supported the indices this morning.
On the oil market, the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi, who died in a helicopter accident on Sunday, ultimately has only a limited impact on crude prices. On the bond front, the ten-year German Bund yield increased by 0.2 basis points, to 2.516%, after an increase of almost seven points on Friday. The euro/dollar parity reached $1.0865 this midday and Bitcoin lost 0.2% to $66,912 on Coindesk. Finally, an ounce of gold sells for $2,442 (+1.1%).
RISING VALUES
* Clariane soared 26% to 4.55 euros after announcing on Friday capital increase operations intended to strengthen its financial structure for a maximum total amount of around 328 million euros. The retirement home manager will welcome the HLD Europe group as a new reference shareholder. HLD Europe will subscribe to a 20% stake in the capital as part of a reserved capital increase, which will be put to the vote at the next shareholders’ meeting on June 10.
* Ubisoft takes 3% to 21.9 euros. According to our information, Cantor has raised its recommendation on the video game publisher to ‘overweight’ with a target of 27 euros. Separately, EQT is in advanced discussions to buy British video game company Keywords Studios for 2.2 billion pounds.
* Airbus gained 0.7% to 160.2 euros. Saudi Arabia’s national carrier, Saudia, will acquire 105 single-aisle aircraft from the European giant as the Kingdom invests billions of dollars to transform the country into an aviation and tourism hub. The deal – which includes 93 A321neos and 12 A320neos – is the largest in Saudia’s 80-year history, explains ‘Bloomberg’. The order would have been larger but the European aircraft manufacturer was not able to provide additional delivery slots before 2032, the airline said. “We need more than 180 planes but there are no slots,” Saudia spokesperson Abdullah Alshahrani told ‘Bloomberg’. “We need the planes now. This is our request.” Saudia should start receiving single-aisle aircraft from 2026, around half of which will be entrusted to its low-cost subsidiary Flyadeal.
FALLING VALUES
* Score lost 2.9% to 29.3 euros. Victim of strong sell-offs on Friday after the announcement of disappointing quarterly results, the reinsurer is this time paying the price of a note from HSBC which downgraded the file to ‘keep’ while reducing its target from 38 to 33 euros. Oddo BHF for its part reiterates its ‘outperform’ recommendation on the stock with a target of 36 euros. The stock’s sharp drop on Friday appears exaggerated, according to the broker. The group is indeed benefiting from an improvement in its underlying property and casualty profitability and it seems too early to deduce from Q1 alone a structural deterioration in life reinsurance profitability, knowing that if this were to be the case, the group would then carry out clear actions to improve profitability…
* Atos (-0.8% to 2.07 euros). The group’s bond creditors would have rejected the takeover offer from billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, considering that the project was “incompatible” with their intentions, reported ‘La Tribune’ this weekend… The financial media specifies that the creditors bondholders judge that the plan to erase almost all of Atos’ debt led by Daniel Kretinsky, in partnership with the Attestor fund, as well as the fear of a piecemeal sale, are not compatible with their wishes to convert a lower level of debt into capital and maintain the integrity of the group.
* Danone (-0.1% to 59.9 euros). The agri-food giant has completed the sale of its EDP activities in Russia to Vamin R LLC, following obtaining the required Russian regulatory authorizations as announced on March 22.