CAC Moderately Higher In Cautious Trade

(RTTNews) - French stocks are up in positive territory a little past noon on Friday, led by gains financials and luxury sectors. The mood remains cautious amid escalating trade war tensions. Slight optimism about a ceasefire in Ukraine is aiding sentiment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday confirmed his support for ceasefire proposal on Thursday, but cast doubt on the prospects of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the ongoing conflict.

The benchmark CAC was up 62.50 points or 0.79% at 8,000.71 a few minuted ago.

Thales is gaining nearly 3.5%, and L'Oreal is rising 3.25%. Danone, BNP Paribas, Hermes International, ArcelorMittal, Societe Generale, LVMH and Accor are advancing 1 to 2%.

Safran, Air Liquide, Carrefour, Credit Agricole, STMicroElectronics, Publicis Groupe, TotalEnergies, Saint Gobain and AXA are up with modest gains.

Kering is plunging more than 10% after an announcement that Georgian designer Demna is set to exit Balenciaga to become creative director of Gucci.

Vivendi is declining 4.3%. Essilor, Teleperformance, Eurofins Scientific, Capgemini, Unibail Rodamco and Edenred are modestly lower.

France's inflation fell below 1% for the first time since early 2021, as initially estimated in February, final data from the statistical office INSEE showed.

Consumer price inflation was 0.8% in February, in line with preliminary estimate, and down from 1.7% in January. This was the weakest since February 2021.

Month-on-month, the consumer price index remained flat, as estimated, following a 0.2% gain in January.

Likewise, EU harmonized inflation halved to 0.9% from 1.8% in January. The rate matched the estimate published on February 28.

At the same time, the harmonized index of consumer prices showed a revised 0.1% growth after a 0.2% fall. The HICP for January was revised up from nil growth. Further, data showed that core inflation softened to 1.3% in February from 1.4% in January.