(News Bulletin 247) – The Parisian index advances at mid-session this Tuesday, while Air Liquide delights investors with its annual results.

After a session for nothing on Monday, the Paris Stock Exchange found a little bit of enthusiasm this Tuesday. The CAC 40 advanced 0.3% to 7,792.64 points at the start of the afternoon, getting back into working order to break new records.

Macroeconomic news remains quite weak. China is taking yet another measure to support the economy via its central bank, the People’s Bank of China. The latter has decided to significantly lower its five-year preferential loan rate, a rate which influences the cost of real estate loans.

A new “measure” from the Chinese authorities which was received with limited enthusiasm by the market. The CSI 300, an index which brings together the largest capitalizations in the Shenzhen and Shanghai markets, ended with an increase of 0.2% to 3410.85 points.

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Air Liquide featured

The market remains mainly dominated by company publications and in particular Air Liquide, the flagship of small carriers, which is up 6.5%. The gas specialist revealed growth above expectations in the fourth quarter and raised its objective of increasing its margins by 2025.

Carrefour gains 2% while the distributor will reveal its annual results after the market closes.

Excluding the CAC 40, Bic is up 8.7% driven by a clear jump in its profitability in the fourth quarter.

Forvia plunges another 11% after having already lost 12.7% the day before following the publication of its annual results. If the accounts were relatively satisfactory, Deutsche Bank emphasizes that the stock suffered from questions from the market on the quality of cash generation, with questions about the improvement in working capital requirements.

On other markets, the euro gained 0.2% against the dollar to 1.0799 dollars. Oil is falling. The April contract on Brent from the North Sea lost 0.9% to 82.83 dollars per barrel while that of the same maturity on WTI listed in New York lost 0.8% to 78.83 dollars per barrel.