CAC 40 Modestly Lower; Renault Rallies On Positive Outlook

(RTTNews) - French stocks are exhibiting weakness on Thursday amid renewed concerns about U.S. tariffs on imports from China. Investors are also digesting a slew of earnings updates and French consumer sentiment data.

The benchmark CAC 40 was down 31.90 points or 0.43% at 7,450.46 a few minutes ago, recovering from a low of 7,411.03.

Dassault Systemes is down nearly 7%. Kering is lower by about 5.3%, while Thales is down 4%.

BNP Paribas is declining 3.7% are reporting mixed quarterly results. The bank reported pre-tax income of 4.240 billion euros for the first quarter, 2.8% lower than 4.363 billion euros in the same quarter a year ago.

Operating income was 3.922 billion euros, 0.3% up from 3.901 billion euros last year, while non-operating items declined to 318 million euros from 462 million euros. Net income, group share decreased 4.9% to 2.951 billion euros from 3.103 billion euros a year ago, while revenue for the quarter grew 3.8% to 12.960 billion euros from 12.483 billion euros in the previous year.

Essilor is down 2.6% and Eurofins Scientific is lower by 2.1%. Teleperformance, Saint Gobain, Safran, Airbus and Sanofi are down 1 to 1.7%.

Renault is climbing up 2.75% after reaffirming its FY25 outlook. In the first-quarter, group revenues were 11.675 billion euros, down 0.3% from 11.707 billion euros last year. However, revenues grew 0.6% at constant exchange rates.

STMicroElectronics is gaining 2.3%, while Air Liquide, Bureau Veritas, Danone and L'Oreal are down 1.2 to 1.9%.

Monthly survey results from the statistical office INSEE said French consumer confidence remained unchanged in April, with the consumer sentiment index coming in at 92 in April. The score was forecast to fall to 91. Nonetheless, the score has remained below its long-term average of 100.

Major purchase intentions of households hit the highest since February 2022. The corresponding index rose to -23 from -26 in March.

The index measuring the current ability to save improved in April, while the one related to their future ability to save worsened as it fell three points to 12.