On Thursday, French stocks experienced an elevation after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in the U.S. was deemed dovish, suggesting a three-quarter percentage point cut in interest rates is on track for 2024.
Despite contraction in France's private sector activity, conveyed by the recent flash survey data from S&P Global, investors largely brushed off the concern. A quickened decline in output and demand towards the end of the first quarter indicated this contraction.
The HCOB composite output index, which had climbed to a nine-month high of 48.1 in February, fell to 47.7 in March. Originally, economists had anticipated the metric to rise to 48.6. The rate of decline in March outpaced that of February, but it was the second slowest over a current ten-month slump.
After a half percent drop on the preceding day, the CAC 40, France's benchmark stock index, rebounded, gaining 47 points or 0.6 percent to stand at 8,208.
Veolia Environnement, the multinational French company, saw its stock rise approximately 1 percent. This came after the company was chosen by the Greater Paris Water Authority to oversee its public drinking water from 2025 for a term of 12 years.
Renault, the prominent automaker, experienced a 0.8 percent increase in its stock value. Industry data disclosed a surge in new car sales throughout the EU for February, marking the second consecutive month of growth due to high demand, particularly in France and Italy. Registrations of new cars increased by 10.1 percent year-over-year to 883,608 units in February, as reported by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
