The control room of Euronext, a company that manages the Paris Stock Exchange (AFP / Archives / ERIC PIERMONT)
The Paris Bourse lost 0.28% on Friday, bringing its total gain for 2021, rich in record, to 28.85%, its best performance for more than 20 years.
Friday, the CAC 40 fell by 20.20 points and ended the year at 7,153.03 points, after an early closing of the Parisian market at 2:00 p.m., due to New Year’s Eve.
2021 was the year of all records for the CAC 40, which broke its all-time high of 21 years and exceeded the 7,000 point mark for the first time in its history.
“At the start of the year, few people imagined such a scenario,” said Thierry Claudé, portfolio manager at Kiplink Finance, “validating a year with more than 28% increase is historic,” he adds.
The abundance of liquidity provided by central banks has largely contributed to the rise of the stock markets, many of which have set new records in 2021.
In addition, the economic recovery was there, as evidenced by corporate profits, which often exceeded analysts’ expectations.
Investors have monitored the evolution of the pandemic at the end of the year. However, the fact that the sharp increase in contamination is not accompanied by a comparable increase in hospitalizations reassures investors.
In France, Omicron is now the majority among the Covid-19 infections identified in the country.
South Africa, where the Omicron variant was detected last month, said Thursday it passed the peak of the wave without a significant increase in the number of deaths.
“Today the session is shortened and there are very few speakers since the start of the week so the trading volumes are very low”, only 800 million euros, underlines Thierry Claudé.
Renault tops the CAC 40
The automaker finished at the top of the CAC 40 for the last session of 2021, signing an increase of 1.48% to 30.55 euros.
In the same sector, Faurecia took 1.58% to 41.83 euros and Valeo 1.53% to 26.58 euros.
However, the French automobile market remained in 2021 at its historically low level of 2020, hit by the health crisis, slowed down by the shortage of electronic chips, according to provisional registration data from the firm NGC Data published on Friday by L’Argus.
© 2021 AFP
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