(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange is progressing mid-session, after having reached 7,900 points for the first time at the opening. Nvidia’s stratospheric results are fueling this buying trend in the markets.

The Paris Stock Exchange remains well anchored in an upward trajectory, helped by the perfect copy unveiled by Nvidia on Wednesday evening. The CAC 40 increased by 0.8% to 7,873.50 points at mid-session, after having once again pushed back its absolute peak to 7,907.79 points, around 9:24 a.m.

The market welcomes with undisguised enthusiasm the impressive results published by the giant Nvidia. In the fourth quarter, Nvidia once again repeated the feat of shattering analysts’ expectations by revealing revenues of $22.1 billion and also announced prospects for its first quarter, again higher than expectations. On Wall Street, the title gained 9% in after-hours trading.

This also benefits stocks in the semiconductor sector such as STMicroelectronics, which moved into second position on the CAC 40 thanks to a gain of 3.2%. Elsewhere in Europe, the Dutch ASML grew by 3.8%, and 3.2% for the German Infineon.

The influence of Nvidia’s results is such that the American group even takes the liberty of stealing the spotlight from the American Federal Reserve, which also published the minutes of its last monetary policy meeting on Wednesday evening. The monetary institution still believes that it is still too early before making a first reduction in key rates.

Still on the macroeconomic side, sector activity in the euro zone contracted less than expected in February. The composite “flash” PMI index, which compiles services and manufacturing activity, increased to 48.9 points, more than the consensus (48.5 points) and after 47.9 points in January.

Sopra Steria at the top

The market continues to dissect the publications of French groups. In terms of CAC 40 values, Axa increased by 2.9% after having “successfully” achieved its main financial objectives for 2023. The group, for example, published a net profit of more than 7 billion euros, which it forecasts to return three-quarters to its shareholders.

Engie gains 2.6% after publishing 2023 accounts driven by its activities in energy management and renewables. The group also raised its forecast for the 2024 financial year.

Danone lost 0.2%, the agri-food group indicated that it expected a slowdown in the growth of its revenues in 2024.

Excluding the flagship index, Sopra Steria (+9.5%) is trading at stock market peaks of around 230 euros after announcing annual results above its expectations.

Bureau Veritas (+6.8%) and Plastic Omnium (+6.6%) are also sought after after their publications.

On other markets, the euro gained 0.3% against the dollar to 1.0857 dollars. Oil continues to rise. The April contract on Brent from the North Sea gained 0.2% to 83.22 dollars per barrel while that on WTI listed in New York also increased by 0.2% to 78.08 dollars per barrel.