The control room of Euronext, the company that manages the Paris Stock Exchange (AFP/Archives/ERIC PIERMONT)
The Paris Stock Exchange ended with new records on Friday, both at the close and during the session, still driven by company results and solid economic indicators, allowing it to ignore fears about strict monetary policies for even longer.
The flagship CAC 40 index increased by 24.79 points (+0.32%) to 7,768.18 points, beating the record set the day before, where it had already jumped by 0.86%. In the middle of the session, it even slightly exceeded 7,800 points for the first time.
Over the week, the results are clearly positive: +1.58%. The Parisian rating was notably supported by company results generally praised by analysts.
The signals sent by the economy, particularly the American one, also remain positive, like American consumer confidence which continued to increase on Friday.
“The market sees that the economic data is good, which is viewed favorably by stocks. This is not always the case,” explains Marine Mazet, rates strategist at Nomura.
For the bond market, this same news is not seen in the same light. After the slowdown in inflation in the United States was less rapid than expected on Tuesday, producer prices increased more than expected, we learned on Friday.
“This week, given the strength of the economic data, we really have the idea that central banks do not need to lower their key interest rates so quickly,” she explains.
State interest rates therefore increased significantly, both on Friday and during the week. The French government’s 10-year interest rate rose from 2.84% on Thursday to 2.87% on Friday, close to its highest level in two months.
If the economic data mainly concerned the United States, “the market is unable to decouple the scenarios of the American Central Bank and the European Central Bank”, explaining the trend on both sides of the Atlantic according to Ms. Mazet.
For Florian Ielpo, economist at Lombard Odier, “a seesawing disinflation accompanied by better profit seasons” is emerging for the first half of 2024.
The results still bear
If no CAC 40 company has published results since Thursday evening, several of them have continued to ride on the good reception given to their publication.
Safran thus gained 2.58% to 187.88 euros, Legrand 1.84% to 92.02 euros, Schneider Electric 1.84% to 201.90 euros. On the other hand, after its jump on Thursday, Renault reversed course (-4.65% to 38.29 euros).
Over the week, the best performance was for Michelin (+7.63% to 33.28 euros), which also published its annual results.
Excluding the flagship index, TF1 also rose 6.78% to 8.74 euros after reactions from analysts following its results published the day before.
Euronext continues its diversification
The diversification of its activities has enabled the pan-European stock exchange operator Euronext (+2.11% to 82.15 euros) not to suffer from a drop in volumes traded on the markets in 2023 and to record a jump of 17 % of its net profit, according to its results published Thursday.
© 2024 AFP
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