(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange closed this last session of February in decline, the acceleration of inflation in France having caused trouble among operators. But over the whole of this second month of the year, the results are more flattering with a CAC 40 which is up 2.6%.

The Paris Stock Exchange did not venture to take the slightest risk for this last session of February. The CAC 40 lost 0.38% to 7,267.93 points on Tuesday evening. On Monday, the Paris star index had taken up 1.5% driven by cheap buyouts.

Over the whole of February, the CAC 40 still gained 2.62% after registering its best month of January in its history (+9.40%). The Parisian index thus shows an increase of 12.27% since the beginning of the year.

However, risk aversion dominated trading in this last February session. Inflation figures in France do not show any appeasement on the price trend front. The harmonized consumer price index in France increased by 7.2% over one year in February against 7% in January. These figures raise fears of an identical trajectory in the euro zone. Investors will have to wait until Thursday to confirm or not these fears about the direction of prices in the zone.

On Wall Street, the trend is undecided with indices moving in scattered order. The Dow Jones dropped 0.30%, the Nasdaq index gleaned 0.24% and the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.12% at the close of European stock markets.

A little earlier in the afternoon, operators learned of a deterioration in US consumer sentiment for the month of February. The Conference Board index contracted to 102.9 points against 108 points expected by the consensus and after 106 in January.

US consumers fear more difficult access to credit as the Federal Reserve hikes rates to combat persistent inflation.

The rise in the PCE index, the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) preferred indicator for measuring inflation, raised fears of further action by the US central bank to continue its monetary tightening.

Worldline, growth at a good price

In terms of values, Worldline ends up 2.8% thanks to Morgan Stanley. The American bank raised its advice to “overweight” against “online weighting” judging that the specialist offers a “GARP [growth at reasonable price] story”, i.e. prospects for sustained growth at an attractive price. It also sees the group continuing to outperform the growth of its Italian competitor Nexi.

Red lantern of the CAC 40, Eurofins Scientific lost 3.8% on the eve of the publication of its annual results.

Excluding the star index, Casino lost 3.6% after reporting deleterious sales in France in the fourth quarter, particularly in its supermarkets.

On the other markets, the euro is stable against the dollar, at 1.0608 dollars. Oil is gaining ground. The contract for delivery in May on Brent from the North Sea rose 2% to 83.73 dollars a barrel while that on WTI listed in New York rose 2.40% to 77.50 dollars a barrel.