Stock Market Decline in Paris: Impact of US Central Bank Rate Hike Plans

2023-06-22 08:20:33

The Paris Stock Exchange fell sharply (-1.44%) Thursday morning and is heading for its fourth consecutive session of decline, pushed to caution by the desire displayed by the president of the American central bank to raise its key rates further.

The flagship CAC 40 index lost 104.26 points to 7,158.61 points around 9:55 a.m., the day following a drop of 0.46%.

The Parisian rating has been in decline since the start of the week, like the rest of the European stock markets and Wall Street.

The New York Stock Exchange also ended lower on Wednesday, following a hearing by Fed boss Jerome Powell in the US Congress.

The president of the monetary institution warned that a rise in interest rates – however slower – was still relevant in order to curb US inflation, which cooled investors.

After the sharp tightening of monetary policy to fight inflation since March 2022, central bankers and investors are wondering if these measures have been calibrated enough or too aggressive, to the point of threatening economic growth.

Thursday is expected the decision of the Bank of England (BoE). The Swiss central bank raised its key rate by 25 basis points to 1.75%, as expected, and that of Norway by 0.5 point to 3.75%, while hinting at a further tightening. in August.

Analysts have so far expected a 0.25 percentage point rise in BoE rates, but the latest inflation figures released yesterday might change that. UK inflation in May held steady at 8.7% year on year, as analysts expected a slowdown.

“Rightly or wrongly, the BoE’s difficulties in channeling price increases are rekindling concerns of a similar situation for the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve,” according to analysts at Natixis CIB Research.

“The fixed income markets reflect this concern quite logically, taking with them a bit of the (fragile) serenity of the equity market,” they add.

SES Imagotag targeted by a fund

Short-selling activist fund Gotham City Research accuses SES Imagotag of “exaggerating” its revenues and profits between 2020 and 2022. It adds in a report released Thursday that the stock is not expected to be worth more than 30 euros according to them.

SES Imagotag is a French company, world leader in electronic labeling in supermarkets, and reported a net profit of 18.7 million euros in 2022.

Its action was suspended Thursday since the opening, at 166.80 euros, its closing price on Wednesday.

Casino is looking for new chips

The group in financial difficulty Casino announced Thursday the sale of its 11.7% stake in the Brazilian brand Assai to “strengthen its liquidity”, following having already obtained, the day before, a postponement of the payment of its tax and social charges .

Casino hopes to reach an agreement with its creditors on a reduction of its debt by the end of July. Financier Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, via several companies including his holding company Fimalac, also declared that he held 12.05% of the capital and 8.36% of the voting rights of Casino, following an agreement concerning the debt of the parent company of struggling distributor, Rallye.

Its action fell by 3.90% to 8 euros and that of its parent company Rallye by 1.97% to 1.98 euros.

Carbios increases its capital

The company specializing in the biological recycling of plastic Carbios (-11.06% to 36.20 euros) launched a capital increase of 122 million euros on Thursday to complete its financing until the start of production of its first factory , under construction in eastern France, and finance the acceleration of its research.

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