The Paris stock market ended the session with an anecdotal gain of 0.12%, at 7342 points, penalized in particular by the downturn in luxury stocks such as L'Oréal (-3.2%), Hermès (-1.9%) and LVMH and Kering (-1.8%).

Since Monday, the Paris index has been hovering around 7340 points, with investors limiting risk-taking as Euronext's European stock markets remain closed tomorrow (Good Friday) and Monday (Easter).

It should be noted that the monthly US employment figures are due to be published tomorrow, but that market players will not be able to react to them until after the weekend - a fact which has also prompted traders to adopt a cautious approach.

According to expectations, this employment report should show a slower pace of hiring in the United States in March, with 225,000 new jobs expected, compared with 311,000 in February.

In the early afternoon, investors took note of the number of weekly jobless claims in the United States: these fell by 18.000 in the week to March 27, to 228,000 from 246,000 the previous week (a sharply revised figure from the 198,000 announced last week, due to a change in calculation methodology, according to the Labor Department).

The number of people receiving regular benefits rose by 6,000 to 1,823,000 (revised by the Labor Department).823,000 (revised from 1,689,000) in the week to March 20, the latest week available for this statistic.

Earlier in the day, market participants were treated to German industrial production figures: according to Destatis, production rose by 2% between January and February 2023, following an increase of 3.7% (revised from a provisional figure of +3.5%) in January.

As a result, the adjusted production index since December 2022 has risen by 5.8%, more than offsetting the significant decline recorded in December (-2.4%)', stresses the federal statistics office.

In February, production in industry excluding energy and construction rose by 2.4% on January, driven in particular by a 7.6% jump in the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, Germany's leading industrial sector.

Bond markets remained fairly stable, with spreads of less than 1 Pt on OATs and Bunds, and the yield on US ten-year Treasuries eased by -1.5 Pt to 3.272%, close to the lowest level since last September.

On the foreign exchange market, the Euro reversed course, rising from -0.15% to +0.15% against the greenback and now trading at $1.0925.

In French company news, Trigano announced that it had entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire almost 100% of the capital of Loisirs Evasion, Loisirs 40, Loisirs 47 and ATC 64 (Alonso group).

Bouygues announced on Thursday that the Paris Court of Appeal had dismissed an appeal by its subsidiary Bouygues Telecom in its dispute with Free Mobile.

Savencia Fromage & Dairy announced the acquisition of Sucesores de Alfredo Williner, one of Argentina's leading dairy companies, collecting high-quality milk for its industrial sites in the province of Santa Fe.

Finally, Orange announces the issue of a billion euros of undated deeply subordinated notes, 'taking advantage of favorable market conditions reflected by the absence of a new issue premium'.

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