The control room of Euronext, the company that manages the Paris Stock Exchange (AFP / ERIC PIERMONT)
The Paris Stock Exchange fell by 0.34% on Friday, penalized by the luxury sector and giving itself a breather at the end of a busy week on the front of monetary policies carried out by central banks.
The flagship CAC 40 index dropped 27.80 points, ending at 8,151.92 points. Thursday, it had progressed by 0.22%, to 8,179.72 points, but its acceleration at the start of the session allowed it to climb to 8,229.25 points, its new session record.
Over the week, the CAC 40 was the only one of the main European indices to show a decline, although slight (-0.15%).
“The week has been busy and it is not illogical” to see the CAC 40 “catching its breath,” commented Andréa Tueni, analyst at Saxo Bank.
This week, central bank meetings followed one another: American Federal Reserve (Fed), Bank of England, Bank of Japan, Swiss National Bank, Bank of Norway.
“On the Fed’s side, there was confirmation of three rate cuts” in 2024, which relieved “the market which thought at one point that there could be fewer,” explained Andréa Tueni.
In the United States, the publication of “solid” activity data has reinforced the idea of a soft landing for the American economy, i.e. a scenario where inflation continues to fall gradually, without leading to a recession. underlined this analyst, while economic indicators showed weaknesses in Germany and France.
“This suggests that the European Central Bank (ECB) has more urgency in lowering its rates than the Fed, Germany is already in recession and other countries are not far from being” on the Old Continent , detailed Andréa Tueni.
In this context, “the decision of the Swiss National Bank [d’abaisser ses taux, NDLR] was quite interesting and gave some hope to investors,” he added.
The market estimates a 90% probability that the ECB will make a first cut in its key rates in June.
The interest rate on ten-year French government bonds fell to 2.79% around 6:00 p.m., compared to 2.84% at the close on Thursday.
Share consolidation for Orpea
Orpea, private giant of nursing homes and clinics, adopted a new name, Emeis, and announced a consolidation of its shares Thursday evening, effective from Friday.
“One thousand old shares with a nominal value of one euro cent were exchanged for one new share with a nominal value of ten euros,” detailed the group in a press release.
Over the course of the restructuring of the group, which resulted in significant dilution for shareholders, Orpea shares, which were trading above 80 euros in January 2022, were worth only one cent until Thursday.
The stock closed Friday up 2.64%, at 13.24 euros.
Euronext CAC40