CAC Modestly Higher; Safran Rises Sharply On Strong Results

(RTTNews) - French stocks are gaining some ground in positive territory on Friday amid optimism about a likely de-escalation in U.S.-China trade dispute, and on data showing an improvement in French manufacturing sentiment in the month of April.

The benchmark CAC 40, which climbed to 7,574.25 earlier in the session, was up 25.87 points or 0.34% at 7,528.65 a few minutes ago.

Safran is up 5.3% after reporting stronger-than-expected revenue for the first quarter and confirming its FY25 outlook. Safran reported adjusted revenue of 7.26 billion euros in the first quarter, up 16.7% from last year's 6.22 billion euros. Adjusted revenues at constant currency grew 2.3%, and the growth was 13.9 % organically.

Accor is rising 4.7%, Saint Gobain is gaining 4.4% and Schneider Electric is up nearly 3%.

Airbus Group and Publicis Groupe are up 2.8% and 2.7%, respectively. Michelin is up 2.2%, while Societe Generale and Dassault Systemes are up 1.7% and 1.6%, respectively.

BNP Paribas, Engie, Legrand, Credit Agricole, TotalEnergies, ArcelorMittal, Veolia Environment and Teleperformance are up with moderate gains.

Edenred is declining more than 8%.

Orange and Capgemeni are lower by 2% and 1.9%, respectively. Thales, Bureau Veritas and Pernod Ricard are declining

Data from the statistical office INSEE revealed that the confidence among French manufacturers rebounded strongly in April to the strongest level in nearly a year.

The manufacturing sentiment index rose to 99 in April from 96.0 in February. Moreover, the index moved closer to its long-term average of 100, and a similar reading was last seen in May 2024. Meanwhile, the score was expected to remain stable at 96.0.

The index measuring personal production expectations improved notably to 11 in April from 6.0 in the previous month. Similarly, producers' past production situation strengthened to 1.0 from -3.0 in March.

Data showed that the index measuring overall order books increased sharply to -18 from -26, while general production expectations showed more negative, and the corresponding index fell to -16 from -11.