After gaining 1.34% on Wednesday, the Paris Stock Exchange continued its positive momentum. The Cac 40 index ended Thursday’s session up 1.36% to 6,715.10 points, its highest level since the end of March. The volume of exchanges, rather extensive, amounted to 4.2 billion euros. More than the debate between the two rounds between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, which did not upset voting expectations and still suggests a re-election of the outgoing president, the market reacted to the publications of quarterly turnover figures companies. The same is true in the United States, where the Dow Jones gains 0.35% and the Nasdaq Composite 0.6%, after that You’re here (+7%) and American Airlines (+7.2%) reassured. The electric vehicle manufacturer was boosted by record quarterly results, while the air carrier announced that it expects a return to profitability in the second quarter.
Some profit taking on Carrefour and Eurofins Scientific
In France, the most significant increases are due to two values outside the flagship index: Veralia and Rexel. The glass packaging maker’s stock rose 11.42% on news of a strong 24% rise in quarterly sales, beating expectations, and confirmation of business growth targets and adjusted gross operating profit. Present in the distribution of electrical equipment, RexeI (+6.36%) also renewed its 2022 forecasts, namely an increase in sales of between 4% and 6% over one year (on a like-for-like basis and at constant number of days) and a margin of EBITDA adjusted to 6%. To second-tier companies, the financial performance of SergeFerrari Group (+8.33%) and Lisa (+7.94%) were also welcomed. Conversely, the distribution group Crossroads lost ground (-2.95%), but remains a gainer of 22.76% since the start of the year. The group has been able to hold its own in a context made more complicated by inflation, but the market holds it against it for activity that has remained stable in France. Going forward, management expressed confidence in its ability to achieve its objectives this year and confirmed in particular that it was able to post a cash flow free over one billion euros. Eurofins Scientific (-4.75%) also underwent releases. The marginal increase in the revenue target for the year, thanks to Covid-19-related income, left investors unmoved, who pocketed some profits after a 142.7% jump in the stock. in three years.
A long-awaited Powell speech
These results have relegated to the background, at least on Thursday, the doubts and concerns aroused by the prospect of a more marked than expected slowdown in the Chinese economy, inflation – it stood at 7.4% over one year in March in the euro zone, in the definitive version – and the coming acceleration of the rise in interest rates in the United States.
The leaders of the three central banks of the United States, the euro zone and the United Kingdom speak at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington. The intervention of Jerome Powell, the head of the US Federal Reserve will be instructive, because the debate is intense between the members of the monetary policy committee on the pace of tightening and the rise in the cost of money. For its part, the European Central Bank (ECB) did not give a timetable for rate hikes, wanting to be flexible. On the other hand, its boss, Christine Lagarde, confirmed last week that it will end its asset purchase program in the third quarter, due to inflation and despite the risk represented by the war in Ukraine. . An opinion that the vice-president of the institution, Luis de Guindos, does not share, since he pleads for a stop in July.
PC