(News Bulletin 247) – From LVMH to Airbus, the six largest market capitalizations of the CAC 40 account for 49.9% of the total stock market value of its 40 components. With nearly 17.8% for LVMH and 38% for the luxury sector alone.

If the American indices are very concentrated, the first seven groups of the Nasdaq Composite representing more than 50% of the total market capitalization (the stock market value of all the shares), the CAC 40 also presents a profile where the bulk of the value rests on a few titles.

As recently noted Axiome Analytics on Twittersix companies alone weigh around half of the CAC 40. Based on market capitalizations on Euronext in euros and by carrying out simple calculations, News Bulletin 247 arrives at an almost identical conclusion: the first six capitalizations (namely LVMH, L’Oréal, Hermès, TotalEnergies, Sanofi and Airbus) represent around 49.9% of the total market capitalization of the 40 companies making up the index, according to data closed on Monday around 4 p.m.

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If we add the following four stocks (Schneider Electric, Air Liquide, EssilorLuxottica and BNP Paribas) the “top 10” concentrates 63.2% of this capitalization (just over 2,416 billion euros).

Luxury is clearly the dominant sector, with 38% in total including LVMH, Hermès, Kering but also the cosmetics group L’Oréal. This figure increases to 41.16% by adding EssilorLuxottica, sometimes included in this sector by financial analysts covering luxury.

Remember that the price of the CAC 40 in its calculations only partially takes into account the capitalization of its components. The calculation of the index is based on the average prices of the companies, weighted certainly by the capitalization, but more exactly by the floating capitalization (that is to say the securities which are traded freely on the market at all times ).

Which changes things a bit. According to a Euronext notice published at the end of March, the stock market operator attributed to TotalEnergies a weighting of 8.14%, much more than Hermes which has “only” 3.6%, while its market capitalization is not is not very far from double that of the tanker. This because of a float which turns out to be much less important.

In addition, Euronext has set a limit which means that no security may see this weighting exceed a ceiling of 15%, regardless of its weight in the floating or total capitalization. This has also long limited the weighting of TotalEnergies in the calculation of the index.

Currently LVMH, the leading European capitalization with more than 429 billion euros, accounts for nearly 18% of the total capitalization of the CAC 40. But its free float remains limited, insofar as the Arnault family owned 48.2% at the end of December. of the capital of the luxury group. Consequently, its weighting in the calculation of the CAC 40, although being the strongest, remained at 12.79% at the end of March, far from the ceiling of 15%.