The Paris Stock Exchange ended close to equilibrium on Friday (+0.08%), allowing it to post a weekly increase for the eighth consecutive time with the still present hope of a coming break in the tightening of policies monetary.
The star CAC 40 index rose 5.16 points to finish at 6,712.48 points. Over the week, it gained 1.01%, its eighth weekly increase in a row. It’s the best series of the year.
The index recovered another 7.11% in November, and since January 1, its losses have been only 6.16%.
As during the whole week, trading volumes were reduced by the absence of many American investors, the markets being closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday and open only for half a session on Friday.
The positive news across the Atlantic came from the confirmed hope of an easing in the monetary tightening of the American Central Bank (Fed), with the publication of the minutes of the last monetary policy meeting on Wednesday.
“The United States is coming down the mountain of inflation”, and the risk of it getting out of control “seems to be a thing of the past”, commented Patrice Gautry, chief economist at Union Bancaire Privée.
The trend is not the same in Europe, where several European Central Bank officials have insisted that the battle against rising prices is far from over in the euro zone.
“We are moving towards a further increase of 0.75 percentage point in the key rates of the ECB”, permitted in particular because “if activity slows down, it does so without major disruption” or abruptly continues Mr. Gautry.
Although this had no effect on the equity markets, bond yields suddenly rose on Friday. France’s 10-year borrowing rate rose to 2.43% from 2.28% on Thursday at the close.
However, it is still far from its peak at more than 3% at the end of September.
Worldline, best performance of the CAC 40
Worldline’s share price rose by more than 5.02% to 46.42 euros over the week, the best progression of the CAC 40 index. It is followed by Thalès (+4.96% to 122.80 euros) , which rebounded after several weeks during which investors abandoned the defense sector, and Air Liquide (+3.56% to 141.50 euros).
Only three companies fell over the five sessions: Airbus (-0.72% to 113.82 euros), Kering (-1.05% to 545.30 euros) which separated from the creative director of Gucci Alessandro Michele on Wednesday, and Teleperformance (-5.52% to 212.10 euros), still volatile after the content moderation scandal in Colombia.