(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange remains on a downward trend after disappointing statistics in the euro zone and announcements from the Fed. The CAC 40 lost 0.4% mid-session.

The Paris Stock Exchange continues its decline below 7,200 points, absorbing the latest announcements from the American Federal Reserve (Fed), which is in no hurry to lower its rates.

Friday at mid-session, the CAC 40 lost another 0.4% to 7184.30 points the day after a significant drop of 1.59%.

And the latest statistics published this morning for the euro zone encourage caution. Private sector activity in the euro zone remains in contraction. The composite PMI index – which brings together the manufacturing industry and services – stood at 47.1 points in September after 46.7 points in August. In France, private sector activity deteriorated to a three-year low, at 43.5 points in September after 46 points in August.

“The European economy remains penalized in particular by the weakness of global demand for manufactured goods. The very degraded surveys over the last three months suggest a contraction in GDP in the euro zone in the third quarter after weak growth the previous quarter,” explains Juliette Cohen, strategist at CPR AM.

The Parisian index is currently showing a decline of 2.64% over the whole of this week punctuated by the central banks. The Bank of Japan is the latest to deliver its verdict. It kept its rates unchanged, despite a price increase of 3.1% year-on-year in August. On Thursday, the Bank of England also opted for the status quo on its rates, while the central banks of Sweden and Norway increased them by 0.25%, all three meeting market expectations. This was not the case for the Swiss National Bank, whose maintenance of rates surprised investors who were counting on an increase.

On the value side, Ubisoft is up 3.6%, the near-finalization of the acquisition of Activision by Microsoft opens up great prospects for the French publisher with the recovery of “cloud streaming” rights to very attractive licenses, such as the franchise “Call of Duty.”

Eramet appreciated by 3.1%, the mining group and Suez announced that they had chosen the city of Dunkirk to set up their electric vehicle battery recycling plant.

On the other hand, Solutions 30 plunged 16.4% after disappointing its half-year accounts.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro lost 0.2% against the dollar to 1.0637 dollars. On the oil side, prices remain on an upward trend after Russia’s decision to temporarily ban exports of gasoline and diesel to all countries, with the exception of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. A barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in November increased by 0.9% to $94.18, while a barrel of WTI for delivery in November also advanced by 1.1% to $90.67.