The Paris Stock Exchange fell 0.64% in early trading on Wednesday, following jumping more than 6% in the previous three sessions, as investors reassessed their expectations of central bank policies.
The star CAC 40 index fell 38.64 points to 6,001.05 points around 9:25 a.m. The day before, it had taken off from 4.24%, its largest increase in one session since March.
To explain the return to grace of equities following a catastrophic month of September, analysts from the Banque Postale argue that “central banks are aggressive in their monetary tightening but not totally oblivious to the risks of financial instability and a marked recession”, and might therefore slow down a little in the coming months, despite their latest statements.
Moreover, “market valuations are already pricing in a lot of bad news” according to these analysts. Thursday the Paris Stock Exchange had hit its lowest since February 2021.
However, these analysts remain cautious.
The Paris Stock Exchange had in particular experienced a euphoric start to the summer already, with the hope that the central banks would be more lenient on economic activity, before plunging once more from mid-August.
In terms of indicators, industrial production in France rebounded in August by 2.4% over one month following falling 1.6% in July, INSEE reported on Wednesday.
French gas reserves are full in anticipation of winter, the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) also announced on Wednesday, calling all the same for a “massive collective effort aimed at reducing our energy consumption”. The price of European natural gas has fallen sharply since its peak in August, and was around 161 euros per megawatt hour shortly before 9:15 a.m. on the benchmark market, the Dutch TTF.
The companies most sensitive to economic activity, such as the automobile industry (Michelin -3.27% to 23.25 euros), suffered profit taking following their rise in recent days.
For its part Bouygues fell 1.34% to 27.30 euros, slightly less than the other construction group Vinci (-1.71% to 83.80 euros). The French energy giant Engie fell 0.73% to 12.22 euros.
The historic takeover by Bouygues from Engie of its large multi-technical services entity Equans was finalized on Tuesday, the two groups announced, allowing the construction giant to develop strongly in the buoyant energy transition market.