The Paris Stock Exchange ended slightly lower on Friday, remaining unmoved by the appointment of a new Prime Minister, with investors preferring to play it safe before the next meeting of the American Federal Reserve next week.
The star index of the place, the CAC 40, lost 11.37 points to settle at 7,409.57 points. Over the whole week, it lost 0.23%.
One of the main events of the session was political: Emmanuel Macron named François Bayrou Prime Minister on Friday and is now responsible for resolving the major political crisis opened by the dissolution, then aggravated by the censorship of Michel Barnier.
“However, there was no market reaction”underlines Frédéric Rozier, portfolio manager at Mirabaud.
At the head of a “general interest government” wanted by the French president, Bayrou will have the task of dealing with the 2025 budget still not voted on, while France has an abysmal debt and a deficit for 2024 of more than 6%.
And precisely, according to Frédéric Rozier, “there is no reason for the market to react” to French political developments until the 2025 budget is announced.
On the bond market, however, the interest rate on ten-year loans from the French State increased, rising to 3.04% from 2.99% on Thursday. Its German equivalent stood at 2.26% against 2.20% the day before.
Investors are in a waiting position before the monetary policy meeting of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) on December 17 and 18.
Despite a recent rebound in inflation in the United States, a quarter-point cut from the American central bank (Fed) is widely expected by investors.
If this decline is confirmed, it would be the last before the Trump administration arrives at the White House and implements policy measures that could prove to be inflationary in nature.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank announced a 0.25 point cut in its key rates. The institution, however, revised downwards the growth outlook for the euro zone, chilling investors.
Soitec takes over
The price of Soitec jumped 6.47% to 86.45 euros after analysts at Bernstein spoke in favor of the semiconductor wafer manufacturer, judging it to be on the right track to recovery, after several warnings.
Planisware integrates the SBF 120
The Casino distribution group (-1.26% to 1.10), now refocused around brands like Monoprix and Franprix, will leave the expanded SBF 120 stock index, the operator Euronext announced Thursday evening.
This change, effective from Monday December 23, was revealed as part of the quarterly revision of the Paris Stock Exchange indices.
The French manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients Euroapi (-5.23% to 2.97 euros) and the satellite operator Eutelsat (-3.59% to 3.01 euros) also lost their place in the SBF 120.
The software publisher Planisware (+1.09% to 27.36 euros), listed on the stock market very recently (April), the chemist Robertet (+0.35% to 872.00 euros) and the pharmaceutical group MedinCell (+ 8.52% at 16.30 euros) are entering the index.
The composition of the CAC 40 has not changed.