Paris (awp/afp) – The Paris Stock Exchange opened lower on Monday as uncertainty weighs ahead of the final list of candidates for the second round of legislative elections in France, with investors also awaiting inflation data from the euro zone.
At around 9:30 a.m., the CAC 40, the leading index of the Paris market, was down 0.91%, or 65.39 points, at 7,495.74 points. On Monday, the leading index advanced 1.09%, or 81.73 points, at 7,561.13 points. It is still far from compensating for the losses in June (-6.42%), its worst performance in two years.
The market is still focused on the outcome of the legislative elections, while the list of final candidates for the second round will be known on Tuesday evening.
“The other parties are trying to prevent the National Rally from gaining power, and negotiations are underway for candidates to withdraw from constituencies where they want to give another party a better chance of victory,” Deutsche Bank analysts explain.
“Once we know who is running, we should have a better idea of the prospects before the vote” on July 7, they continued.
At this stage, according to AFP findings, more than 150 candidates have withdrawn from more than 300 three-way races initially planned for the first round.
For the French president, the game looks set to be very tight after July 7, whether he enters into head-on cohabitation with the RN or comes to terms with a minority and technical government, the two most likely scenarios.
“Investors are mainly hoping for the minority government scenario, which would at least prevent (Marine) Le Pen’s party from increasing France’s debt,” comments Ipek Ozkardeskaya, an analyst at Swissquote Bank.
“This would help to control the gap between French and German bonds,” which is an indicator that measures investor confidence in France, and “to support the euro,” the analyst continued.
On the bond market, the rate for the 10-year French loan was at 3.35% around 9:30 a.m., compared to 2.58% for the German rate.
On the currency side, the single European currency lost 0.22% against the greenback, to 1.0716 dollars for one euro.
On the agenda for the session, investors will look to the publication of unemployment figures for the eurozone in June, while “the inflation figures published since Friday in the main countries of the eurozone are mixed,” comments Ipek Ozkardeskaya.
In addition, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, “suggested that there would probably not be a second rate cut at her monetary policy meeting in July”, during her opening speech at the annual ECB forum in Sintra, Portugal, the analyst points out.
Sodexo sanctioned
The collective catering and services group Sodexo saw its turnover growth slow slightly with inflation, but confirmed its annual objectives thanks in particular to a “robust” development in catering services.
Sanctioned, its title dropped nearly 5% to 81.70 euros.
Cora goes to Carrefour
The retail giant Carrefour (-0.60% to 13.32 euros) announced on Monday evening that it was officially buying the Cora stores from the Belgian group Louis Delhaize, which will switch to the Carrefour brand, as well as the Match stores, which will keep theirs.
Renault makes it cheaper
The automotive group will equip some of its electric cars with LFP batteries, a technology that is cheaper than the usual NMC batteries, the group’s electrical subsidiary, Ampere, announced on Monday after the stock market closed.
Renault rose 0.39% to 48.44 euros.
Casino sells stores
The distributor Casino (-0.66% at 3.47 euros) announced on Tuesday the sale of 66 large format stores to the Les Mousquetaires group and to Auchan Retail France, in accordance with an agreement which had already led the heavily indebted group to sell more than 200 hypermarkets and supermarkets to its competitors in the spring.
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