(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange resumed this Wednesday at mid-session, supported by the rebound in the banking sector and the rise in TotalEnergies. The CAC 40 rose 1.2%, ignoring a disappointing new statistic in China.

Parisian investors are regaining their appetite for risk on Wednesday, thanks to a banking sector in better shape than the day before. The CAC 40 rebounded 1.2%, back from 7300 points to 7358.50 points at mid-session.

On Tuesday, the star index in Paris had fallen below this threshold, weighed down by this same banking sector which had then been shaken by the surprise announcement of a tax on the superprofits generated by Italian establishments. Moody’s warning on US banks issued Monday night also cast a chill.

Finally, the Meloni government is revising its copy a little on its exceptional levy project. The amount of this tax may not exceed 0.1% of a bank’s risk-weighted assets. Which pleased the markets, seeing with a good eye this change in the rules of the game.

An inverted list

European and French banks are benefiting from this softening of the Italian government’s position. Among the biggest increases of the day, BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole, which are the banking establishments most exposed to Italy, rose by 2.1% and 0.8% respectively after having lost 3% and 2.5% the day before. . With an increase of 2%, Societe Generale more than made up for its delay accused the day before (-1.7%).

In Milan, the sector also comes out of the water while some shares had plunged up to 11% the day before, like Bper Banca.

But it is TotalEnergies (+3%) which leads the CAC 40, benefiting from the rebound in oil prices to their highest since April. The barrel of Brent from the North Sea, for delivery in October rose 0.8% to 86.86 dollars and its American equivalent, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in September gained 0.9% to $83.66. Production by OPEC and its allies also reached its lowest level in nearly two years in July, according to a Platts survey by S&P Global cited by AFP.

Like the oil markets, the Paris market relegates the publication of disappointing new Chinese statistics to second place. China’s consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, contracted 0.3% year on year in July, a trend that is pushing the country into deflation. Despite this new bad signal on the health of the world’s second largest economy, luxury stocks are on the rise. LVMH is currently up 0.9%, Hermès 1.1% and Kering 1.4%.

Only one value of the CAC is changing downwards, and it is anecdotal since Publicis lost 0.1%.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro resumed some colors (+0.2%) to 1.0979 dollar. The single currency is benefiting from a weaker greenback, with a return of risk appetite in the markets and after statements by a US Federal Reserve official arguing for rates to be maintained in September.