(News Bulletin 247) – For the third consecutive session, the Paris Stock Exchange ends the day’s stock market debates in the red. At issue: mixed company publications and the persistent difficulties of First Republic Bank. The CAC 40 closed down 0.9% back below 7,500 points.

And three. The Paris Stock Exchange remained stuck in a downtrend. The latest corporate publications have come out mixed, while First Republic Bank’s stock market setbacks are worrying the market.

In decline at mid-session, the CAC 40 closed down 0.86% to return below the threshold of 7,500 points to 7,466.66 points on Wednesday. The Nasdaq’s rebound (+1%), boosted by Microsoft’s sparkling form after its quarterly results, had no effect on the trend.

Investors must indeed digest a slew of publications and corporate announcements that weigh very clearly on the trend. Especially since market operators have been facing renewed tension on banks since Tuesday, with the difficulties of First Republic Bank, which saw its deposits melt like snow in the sun in the first quarter. Its action plunged another 15% on Wall Street, shortly after the European close.

“The coming hours or days will tell us whether the bank is viable or not. In any case, at this stage, like a month ago, we cannot talk about systemic risk. Nevertheless, the market reaction has been immediate with a strong withdrawal of risk taking, with a fall in the stock market and a craze for government bonds”, underlines Sebastian Paris Horvitz, of La Banque Postale Asset Management.

Teleperformance and Dassault in the hard

Moreover, the recent rise in European equities calls for some caution. “The rebound in European equities since the start of the year is pushing more and more major American institutions to take profits,” said John Plassard of Mirabaud.

To return to the results, the CAC 40 was weighed down by Teleperformance (-14%) and Dassault Systèmes (-6.8%).

Teleperformance published growth well below expectations in the first quarter and announced the acquisition of Majorel, a Luxembourg company, for 3 billion euros. This latest operation contrasts with the company’s traditional acquisition policy, which does not usually set its sights on such imposing targets.

Dassault Systèmes, for its part, did not publish catastrophic results in the first quarter. But both its license sales and the growth of its cloud-related activities are disappointing the market.

Another notable drop was that of Kering (-2.3%), which recorded like-for-like sales growth of just 1% in the first quarter, a figure light years away from the superb growth of LVMH and Hermès.

Among the good students of the day, all compartments combined, figure Korian (+ 7.4%) which reassured on its quarterly activity. The retirement home operator said it had found partners for its real estate assets, an initiative that also hit the mark. Orpea, which is also in full review of its real estate assets, benefits from this announcement (+11.6%)

On the other markets, the euro gained 0.6% against the dollar at 1.105 dollars. Oil prices returned to equilibrium after losing ground on fears about economic activity. The contract on Brent from the North Sea for delivery in June is trading at 80.53 dollars a barrel while that of the same term on WTI listed in New York, advanced 0.1% to 77.16 dollars a barrel.