The control room of Euronext, the company that manages the Paris Stock Exchange (AFP/Archives/ERIC PIERMONT)
The Paris Stock Exchange ended down 0.24% on Friday, penalized by the fall of the cosmetics giant L’Oréal, which ceded its place of second market capitalization to Hermès, whose results were praised.
The flagship CAC 40 index fell by 18.11 points, to 7,647.52 points. Over the week, however, it managed to post a slightly positive weekly balance sheet (+0.73%).
The week passed without any major meetings and “it is a good opportunity to observe how the market reacts without a catalyst,” noted Florian Ielpo, economist at Lombard Odier AM.
However, the market “has advanced in small steps” and the high valuation levels will “start to raise questions”, he underlined.
The Parisian session was marked by the performances of L’Oréal and Hermès, two heavyweights in the CAC 40.
After the publication of their respective results, the two giants of the Paris Stock Exchange saw their market valuations come closer together, before the luxury group ended up dethroning the cosmetics group as the second French market capitalization behind LVMH.
Building on the group’s record results for the year 2023 and a financial performance above analysts’ estimates in the last quarter, Hermès shares jumped 4.80%, to 2,174.50 euros.
The situation is opposite for L’Oréal, whose action fell by 7.58%, to 418.80 euros, after results considered disappointing in the fourth quarter.
These two cumulative performances increased the market capitalization of Hermès, that is to say the sum that would have to be paid to buy all its shares, to 229.561 billion euros, while at the same time, that of L ‘Oréal fell to 223.943 billion euros, according to Bloomberg data.
However, “today’s drop will not penalize L’Oréal in the long term”, according to Céline Weill-Alliel, manager of Uzes Gestion, who believes that L’Oréal will eventually return above Hermès in terms of market capitalization.
On the macroeconomic front, investors turned to the annual revision of estimates for the US CPI consumer price index.
If December inflation was revised downward to +0.2% instead of +0.3%, good news, that of November and October were revised slightly upwards.
“Fundamentally, inflation continues to decline gradually. Fed officials will be happy to see that this post-revision data confirms this,” commented Rubeela Farooqi, analyst at HFE.
Ubisoft does better than expected
The action of French video game publisher Ubisoft jumped 13.81%, to 22.67 euros, after results better than analysts’ forecasts in the third quarter of its 2023-2024 financial year.
© 2024 AFP
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