(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange is starting the week in good spirits. The CAC 40 rebounded on Monday, benefiting from an appeasement in the banking sector after the takeover of SVB by First Citizens and the announcement of a surprise improvement in the business climate in Germany.

After a complicated weekend, the Paris Stock Exchange is trying to get back on track on Monday, supported by the announcement of the takeover of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) by its sister company First Citizen.

The CAC 40 resumed 1% to 7,084.23 points on Monday at mid-session. On Friday, the Paris star index had ended in sharp decline to yield 1.74%. It had been somewhat shaken for the last session of the week, penalized by the fears of the operators on the financial solidity of the first German bank Deutsche Bank.

On a weekly basis, the picture is much less gloomy, the CAC 40 posted gains of 1.30%, an advance which enabled it to preserve 7,000 points on Friday evening.

For Stephen Innes, analyst of SPI Asset Management quoted by AFP, the atmosphere of the markets this Monday morning is characterized by an “unusual calm […] amid recent turmoil in the transatlantic banking sector”.

In addition to the rescue of SVB, investors learned earlier in the morning of an unexpected improvement in the morale of German entrepreneurs for the month of March. The IFO indicator rose by 2.2 points to 93.3 points for the sixth consecutive month and did better than the consensus which was counting on a level of 91.2 points for the third month of the year.

Banks in the line of fire

Banking stocks are of course closely watched after recent developments in the sector. BNP Paribas rebounded 2%, Axa picked up 1.4% when Crédit Agricole gained 0.5% and Société Générale 0.3%.

As for other values, Orpea stands out and falls by 9.1% while the operator of retirement homes announced Friday evening that it was placed in the “accelerated safeguard” procedure.

Analysts’ recommendations are rain or shine on several titles on Monday. Orange rose 2.7%, supported by Morgan Stanley, which raised both its recommendation to overweight and its price target at 14 euros.

Plastic Omnium (+4%) benefits for its part from the support of JPMorgan, which raised its opinion of underweight to neutral with a target price of 17 euros.

As for other assets, the euro fell slightly by 0.1% to 1.0767 dollars. Oil prices are trending up. A barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in May gained 0.7% to 75.08 dollars, while a barrel of American WTI at the same maturity rose 0.6% to 69.70 dollars.