CAC Rises 1.3% On U.S-EU Trade Deal Optimism

(RTTNews) - French stocks are up firmly in positive territory on Wednesday, recovering well from recent losses. U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement about trade deals with Japan and Philippines has raised hopes the European Union will soon strike a deal with the U.S. ahead of the August 1 deadline.

The prospects of an EU-U.S. trade agreement improved after Trump said that EU representatives would come for trade negotiations on Wednesday.

"We have Europe coming in tomorrow, and the next day, we have some other ones coming in," Trump said late on Tuesday, without specifying details.

The benchmark CAC 40 was up 102.20 points or 1.32% at 7,846.61 a little while ago.

Stellantis is rising nearly 7%. Kering is gaining 3.85% and Teleperformance is climbing up 3.1%. Renault is up 3.3% after vehicle sales rose by 1.3% in the first half of the year.

Saint Gobain, L'Oreal, LVMH, BNP Paribas, Sanofi and Hermes International are up 2 to 3%. Michelin, Pernod Ricard, Eurofins Scientific are up nearly 2%.

AXA, Airbus, Safran, Accor, Vinci, EssilorLuxottica, Carrefour, Societe Generale, Schneider Electric and Unibail Rodamco are gaining 1 to 1.8%.

Edenred is up 1.7%. the company announced that its net profit remained flat in the first half compared to the previous year due to higher financial and tax expenses. For the first half, net profit remained at 235 million euros compared with last year.

Adjusted net profit increased to 279 million euros from 268 million euros in the previous year. Adjusted earnings per share were 1.16 euro versus 1.08 euro last year.

French train maker Alstom is up more than 4.5% as first-quarter sales topped estimates.

Aerospace and defense company Thales is down 1%. The company reported adjsted net income of 877 million euros for the first-half, compared to 866 million euros a year ago. In the first half, net income from continuing operations grew 6% to 664 million euros from prior year's 625 million euros.

Looking ahead, for fiscal 2025, the company expects adjusted EBIT margin to be in the range of 12.2% to 12.4%, mainly driven by the margin progression in the Aerospace segment and continued high margin in Defence.

STMicroElectronics is lower by nearly 3%. Engie and Orange are modestly lower.