The Paris Stock Exchange ended at breakeven (+ 0.09%) on Wednesday, managing to reverse its fall in the past few days without ceasing to fear the effects of the spread of the coronavirus on the economy.
The CAC 40 index gained 4.87 points to 5,684.55 points, in a high trading volume of 6.9 billion euros. The day before, it had ended in a sharp decline (-1.94%).
The day started off badly, as the index went as far as briefly losing more than 2%. But the Parisian rating gradually went up the slope then.
The place has benefited “from a technical rebound, with a hunt for good deals on the titles most affected in recent days, including the automobile,” noted Daniel Larrouturou, an equity manager at Dom Finance.
“The green opening of the New York Stock Exchange” also helped “European markets to recover a little,” he added.
“But above all, there is great nervousness and the very brutal developments of the day testify to the difficulties of investors in properly assessing the consequences of the epidemic,” he said. “Investors are sailing by sight based on economic news.”
Viral pneumonia continued to spread worldwide on Wednesday, although the spread of the virus seemed to slow in China, which has about 78,000 infected people, more than 2,700 of whom have died.
In Europe, Italy is the most affected European country, with twelve deaths and more than 300 people infected. In France, three new cases have been identified, including one fatal, a 60-year-old man who died in Paris.
The new coronavirus appeared on Tuesday in three new European countries, Austria, Switzerland, and Croatia, as well as in Algeria. The first case of contamination was detected on Wednesday in Greece.
– Improved for the automobile –
The automotive sector, very affected by the health crisis, saw an upturn in the wake of the good results of Peugeot and Europcar.
Peugeot SA thus increased by 4.75% to 18.52 euros after a record net profit in 2019, up 13.2% to 3.2 billion euros.
Europcar Mobility Group jumped 8.49% to 3.60 euros, driven by a forecast of “strong growth” in net profit in 2020.
Renault gained 1.22% to 29.09 euros.
Thales, for its part, took off from 6.08% to 96.68 euros thanks to a net profit of 1.122 billion euros in 2019, up 14%.
The European travel and tourism sector, however, continued to suffer, like Accor (-1.87% to 34.56 euros).
Danone advanced 0.53% to 67.94 euros. The group has lowered its targets for 2020 and forecasts a 100 million euros impact of the coronavirus epidemic on its sales in the first quarter, China being its second market.
Hermes rose 0.27% to 666 euros while the group estimated that it was “still too early” to assess the impact of the coronavirus on its activity, after another record year in 2019.
