(News Bulletin 247) – The GDP of the world’s second largest economy jumped 4.5% in the first quarter, which somewhat encourages risk taking in the market.

After a breath on Monday, the Paris Stock Exchange is moving forward. At mid-session on Tuesday, the CAC 40 won 0.5% to 7,538.70 points.

The Parisian index is supported by Chinese growth in the first quarter, the strength of which surprised the market. Over the first three months of the year, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.5% over one year according to the National Bureau of Statistics (BNS), benefiting from the total lifting of the draconian measures taken by the country as part of its “zero-Covid” policy.

Economists polled by AFP were counting on an increase limited to 3.8%. “The transition [d’une économie “zéro Covid” à la réouverture, NDLR] was probably not set to be smooth, but most of the data observed in recent months suggests that it has been relatively successful,” dissects Craig Erlam of Oanda.

Virbac suffers a decline in sales

“However, data released on Tuesday also underscores how uneven the recovery has been. The consumer has done the heavy lifting and it’s that outperformance in March – retail sales rose 10.6%, beating expectations. – which made it possible” to reach these good figures, he nuances. The market analyst notes that industrial production and investment, other components of GDP, have on the contrary disappointed expectations.

Market operators are also taking note of the surprise deterioration in the ZEW index, which measures investor confidence in Germany, which fell to 4.1 in April from 13 in March.

In terms of values, Orpea recorded a new increase (11%) while minority shareholders representing more than 5.5% of the capital published a press release to demand the holding of a general meeting and contest the heavy restructuring plan of the Company.

The Virbac veterinary laboratory fell 4.5% after publishing a decline in sales for the first three of the year.

On the other markets, the euro recovered 0.4% against the dollar at 1.0974 dollar. Oil contracts are down a bit. The North Sea Brent contract fell 0.3% to 84.54 dollars a barrel while the WTI contract listed in New York for June fell 0.4% to 80.51 dollars a barrel.