(News Bulletin 247) – The CAC 40 is moving up slightly at mid-session, driven by the rise in oil-related values. Several countries announced production cuts on Sunday, thus boosting the price of black gold.

The Paris Bourse is off to a good start for a week which will be reduced to four days, the market being closed next Friday due to Easter celebrations.

At mid-session on Monday, the CAC 40 won 0.5% to 7,358.37 points. The Parisian index is carried by TotalEnergies which takes 4.2%. Other oil-related stocks also rose, such as CGG, which advanced by 5.4%.

The progression of these securities follows in the wake of that of oil. Brent crude from the North Sea for delivery in June advanced 5.3% to 84.13 dollars a barrel, while that for May on WTI listed in New York rose 5.4% to 79.78 dollars a barrel.

Banks continue to rebound

The prices of black gold are supported by the surprise announcement on Sunday of production cuts by several member countries of OPEC+ (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries associated with certain countries including Russia). Saudi Arabia has decided to implement cuts of 500,000 barrels per day from May until the end of the year, followed by Iraq (211,000), the United Arab Emirates (144,000), Kuwait (128,000), Kazakhstan (78,000), Algeria (48,000) and Oman (40,000).

In total, these declines exceed 1.15 million barrels per day, or about 1% of daily world production, which stands at around 100 million barrels per day.

This announcement casts doubt on the outlook for demand for oil and could also complicate the task of the major central banks, which are currently trying to curb persistent inflation by tightening their monetary policies.

“It will take some time to see the exact impact of this on global prices as demand concerns persist, but this is another potential factor putting upward pressure on inflation. , after being largely an improving factor this year”, commented the strategists of Deutsche Bank.

On values, in addition to oil, the banks continue their recovery, Societe Generale taking 3% and BNP Paribas 2.5%. “Banking stress seems to be stabilizing,” note the economists at La Banque Postale Asset Management.

Atos advances by 0.9%. The group announced on Monday that it had finalized the sale of its operations in Italy to the Italian group of services and digital solutions Lutech

On the foreign exchange market, the euro took 0.15% against the dollar at 1.0862 dollars.