The Paris Stock Exchange hit a new session record on Thursday, driven by remarkable corporate results that allowed the CAC 40 to end the session in the green, despite the downtrend on Wall Street.
The flagship CAC 40 index rose 0.89%, or 65.30 points, to 7,366.16 points, the day after a gain of 1.21%.
At the end of the morning, the index exceeded its previous record of 7,384.86 points, set on January 5, 2022, to reach a new all-time high at 7,387.29 points.
“There was a flood of positive events in January and there are not many clouds left now”, comments Charles de Riedmatten, equity manager of Myria AM, citing “very auspicious company publications, the energy crisis swept away and inflation falling”.
The trend was the same elsewhere in Europe, with the London Stock Exchange breaking record after record for a few days and closed Thursday above 8,000 points for the first time in its history.
After a thunderous start to the session, the stock market indices slowed down after the publication of the producer price index in the United States, which emerged up 0.7% in January over one month, at most high level since June and significantly above economists’ forecasts (+0.4%).
For Mr. de Riedmatten, this indicator has “come to break the positive feeling observed since the beginning of the year” on the markets.
“The disinflation cycle is underway but it will take time and this makes the market think that the Federal Reserve will need to make further increases in its key rates,” he explains.
On the bond market, sovereign debt interest rates jumped briefly before returning to stability. The cost of the French 10-year loan ended at 2.93%, very close to its highest in more than 10 years, reached at the end of 2022.
Orange, Pernod Ricard and Airbus hailed
The strongest increases in the CAC 40 were observed for companies that published their results on Thursday, in particular Orange (+6.46% to 10.62 euros), whose new strategic plan was well received by investors, but also Pernord Ricard, with a “very good” first half according to the group (+3.41% to 195.80 euros) or even Airbus and its record profit (+4.94% to 124.94 euros).
Coveted Atos
Atos has been driven by Airbus’ interest in acquiring 30% of Evidian, the company Atos is to create to house its cybersecurity activities in particular. Its action jumped 14.61% to 13.53 euros.
Among other results
The results of the world’s third largest producer of glass bottles and packaging Verallia impressed (+7.55% to 37.60 euros), as did the increase in turnover of the Valneva laboratory, which took 4.64% to 6 .36 euros.
On the other hand, Aéroports de Paris fell by 5.28% to 136.45 euros, despite results in the green. Analysts are worried about an upward review of its investments.
The land Klépierre lost 2.02% to 23.71 euros.
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