The Paris Bourse closed this Friday session slightly down 0.28%, to 7,153.03 points, at the end of a half-day without relief, in a deserted market, traders having swapped their screens for the preparations for the Christmas Eve. The volume of trade is also the second lowest of the year with 860 million euros traded on Cac 40 stocks. The index nonetheless gained 28.85% in 2021, its most strong growth since 1999 (+ 51.12%), and one of the best performances among the major world markets. The Parisian barometer set a record at the close last Tuesday at 7,181.11 points before signing an all-time high during the session at 7,201.65 the next day. Beyond the spring outbreaks, the previous highest was in September 2000.
Fellows have learned to adjust to two years of pandemic and the recent surge in Omicron variant infections. Most governments have refrained, for the moment, from imposing new containments in the face of a strain deemed less dangerous than the previous ones. Officials in major industrialized countries have, on the contrary, concentrated their efforts on vaccination and canceled the New Year’s Eve festivities for the second year in a row. ” As 2022 approaches, questions of inflation, growth and the return of the pandemic continue to haunt us, while the outlook for monetary policy is clouded by potential rate hikes in the coming months. Overall it still seems smart to expect stocks to continue to rise, but perhaps with less exuberance than we experienced in 2021. “, Predicts Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.
Abnques and techs at the top of the list
Within the Cac 40, the best annual performance goes to Vivendi with a 126.3% jump, mechanically inflated by the distribution to its shareholders of free Universal Music Group (UMG) shares in September. Luxury stocks, which are among the highest weightings in the index, have largely contributed to the rise of the Cac 40 this year. Hermes notably appreciated by 74.6%. The saddler entered the Euro Stoxx 50 index at the beginning of December, which caused a surge of more than 20% the previous month in anticipation of this induction.
The year was also good for the banking sector, supported by rate hike expectations from the major central banks amid inflationary pressures. Societe Generale stood out this year on the Cac 40, with an increase of 77.5% which is also a catch-up after its sharp decline in previous years. ” The emergency purchasing program in the face of the pandemic (PEPP) allowed European banks to absorb the shock caused by the contraction in economic activity at the start of the year “, Indicates Charalambos Pissouros, in research at JFD Group, quoted by Reuters.
Finally, note the good performance of technology stocks, whose associated Stoxx 600 index rose 33.8% in 2021, the second best sector performance behind banks. Capgemini won 70% this year and STMicroelectronics 43.2%.
Hong Kong shot in extremis by the Golden Dragon
In other major financial centers, the Footsie folded 0.25% on Friday (+ 14.3% in 2021). Thursday the Dax of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange had closed up 0.21% for a gain of 15.8% over the year. The contracts futures on American indices are down slightly before the last session of 2021 in New York, which will end at the usual time.
Wall Street finished slightly lower Thursday, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 yielding respectively 0.25% and 0.30% after setting new records in session, while the Nasdaq Composte fell 0.16%. At Thursday’s close, the Dow Jones was up 18.92% for the year, the S&P 500 for 27.23% and the Nasdaq Composite for 22.14%.
In Asia, the Hang Seng of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange ended its last session, shortened, with a gain of 1.24%, boosted in particular by the technology compartment in the wake of the 9.4% increase in the Golden Dragon index of Chinese mid and large caps listed in New York, such as Tencent or Baidu. Over the whole of 2021, the Hang Seng nevertheless lost 14.08%, its worst annual performance since 2011. For its part, the CSI 300 of the main capitalizations of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges ended up 0.38 % for a drop of 5.20% in 2021, the first in three years.
At the end of a year marked by the takeover by Beijing of the technology, video games and real estate sectors, among others, the Chinese markets welcomed the surprise acceleration of the growth of manufacturing activity in the country, the official PMI index having increased by 0.2 point to 50.3 in December. Tokyo and Seoul were closed on Friday, closing the year with gains of 4.91% for the Nikkei 225 and 3.63% for the Kospi.