The Paris Stock Exchange rose 0.41% on Friday, amid investor confidence in the outlook for economic growth in Europe and the United States, and interest rate cuts.
The leading CAC 40 index gained 30.18 points to 7,465.25 points. On Thursday, the Paris index had closed up 0.52%.
Over the week, the index rose by 1.54%.
For the markets, “the underlying trend is a scenario of a soft landing” for the economy, underlines Valérie Rizk, economist at Hugau Gestion.
Inflation has indeed slowed significantly and the scenario of a recession is not the one favoured by investors.
Furthermore, “there is one certainty, that is that the key rates will fall”, adds Valérie Rizk, but the market is debating their extent.
The European Central Bank (ECB) cut rates by 0.25 percentage points on Thursday, for the second time since June.
And on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve (Fed) is also expected to announce a reduction in its key rates, the first since it began raising them in 2022.
But “there is a lot of nervousness around this underlying trend,” observes the economist, with “very rapid developments in one direction or the other as publications and speeches by central bankers are made.”
Investors’ likelihood of a 0.50 percentage point Fed rate cut rose sharply on Friday after a report by a Wall Street Journal reporter “known to have ties to the Federal Reserve,” according to MUFG analyst Derek Halpenny.
While market participants are unsure whether the Fed will cut rates by 0.25 or 0.50 points, according to this reporter, Fed members themselves are still hesitating.
At around 6 p.m., the yield on ten-year French bonds stood at 2.83%, compared with 2.85% the previous day.
Read more
Public withdrawal offers at Bolloré
Transport and logistics specialist Bolloré rose 4.82% to 5.98 euros after announcing its intention to conduct “public withdrawal offers followed by mandatory withdrawals” for the shares of three of its subsidiaries: Compagnie du Cambodge, Financière Moncey and Société Industrielle et Financière de l’Artois.
This operation will take “the form of alternative public offers payable either in cash, or in Universal Music shares, or a combination of the two.”
Valneva seeks capital
The Franco-Austrian pharmaceutical group Valneva has announced that it has raised more than 60 million euros via a capital increase to finance in particular its vaccine program against shigellosis, a fatal diarrheal disease.
Its shares fell by 10.45% to 2.81 euros.
Departure at Wordline
Electronic payments specialist Worldline fell 14.38% to 7.21 euros after announcing the departure of its CEO, Gilles Grapinet, and the downward revision of its earnings forecasts for the current year.
While in August it was still counting on organic growth in its turnover of 2 to 3% over the year, Worldline is now counting on 1%.
“These announcements confirm the significant difficulties encountered by Worldline” and the “change of CEO seems essential to us after too many profit warnings”, comment the analysts at Oddo BHF.
Euronext CAC40
jvi/mgi/liu
Related News :