(News Bulletin 247) – The Parisian index is moving very slightly down in mid-session, while investors dissect many points of company activity. The good sales of EssilorLuxottica support the index.

The Paris Bourse is struggling to find a clear direction this Friday. At mid-session, the CAC 40 lost 0.1% to 7,530.83 points. Over the week as a whole, the index is currently moving into positive territory with an increase of 0.17%.

The market continues to digest the large waves of corporate publications in Europe and the United States.

“Corporate earnings season is only just beginning and it is difficult to draw any conclusions yet. a little better than expected. However, the mixed nature of these results as a whole did not really give the market any momentum, while from an economic point of view, the short-term statistics were less buoyant than expected”, underlines Sébastien Paris Horvitz, economists at La Banque Postale Asset Management.

EssilorLuxottica shines

The latest US statistics have indeed hardly been reassuring. Released Thursday afternoon, weekly jobless claims were higher than expected, while the Philadelphia-area manufacturing survey for April proved disappointing.

In this difficult climate, some business publications stand out. EssilorLuxottica thus provides strong support to the CAC 40, driven by the publication of sales growth more than twice as high as expected in the first quarter, and vigor in the United States which takes the market by surprise.

Gecina (+2.2%), Carmila (+2.45%) or even GTT (+2%) also satisfy investors, each of these three companies having published their earnings in the first quarter.

On the other hand, Ipsos collapsed (-12%), its turnover having contracted by 2.8% over the first three months of the year. The group is suffering from the end of major pandemic monitoring contracts.

Another stock market plunge, that of Solutions 30, which fell 12% after publishing a stronger net loss than expected by analysts at TP ICAP Midcap for its 2022 financial year.

On the other markets, the euro lost 0.06% against the dollar at 1.0964 dollars. Oil prices are sluggish. North Sea Brent crude for June delivery fell 0.1% to $81.01 a barrel, while that on WTI quoted in June was stable at $77.32 a barrel.