French stocks saw a rise on Friday, spurred by the unexpected decline in US retail sales - a scenario that enhances the likelihood of the Federal Reserve implementing interest rate cuts in the near future. It is also anticipated that the European Central Bank will soon initiate its first rate cut this year.
Francois Villeroy de Galhau, Bank of France head and ECB member, reportedly communicated that while impulsive decisions are not advised, it is more practical to take progressive and pragmatic steps instead of stalling for too long and being forced to make hasty overadjustments. He expressed these views to the Belgian publication, L'Echo.
The noteworthy CAC 40 followed suit with an increase of 44 points or 0.6%, marking a new total of 7,787 - a growth from a 0.9% climb observed the prior day.
Significant gains were noted across several businesses including BNP Paribas, Dassault Systemes, Eurofins Scientific, Hermes International, Kering, Legrand, STMicroelectronics, Societe Generale, and Stellantis, where shares rose between 1-2 percent. On the other hand, Airbus Group witnessed a share value decrease of over 1%.
