(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange continues its rise, thanks to Nvidia which literally enchanted the markets after stratospheric results and prospects. The CAC 40 ends its race for the first time on 7,900 points.

You’d almost get used to it. The Paris Stock Exchange is pushing back its peaks a little more every day, this time supported by Nvidia which delighted the markets after an extraordinary publication.

The CAC 40 jumped 1.27% to 7,911.60 points this Thursday evening, which constitutes a new, unprecedented closing mark. During the session, the tone was already set, with an absolute peak at 7,923.96 points, just after the opening of the American markets, in turn welcoming the performance of the American graphics chip giant.

New records for Nvidia?

The graphics chip giant has once again amazed investors with quarterly results that exceeded expectations, and announced prospects that were also appreciated by the markets. On Wall Street, Nvidia shares jumped 15% to reach new highs at around $780. The group sees its market capitalization increase by 245 billion dollars, the equivalent of a Hermès on the stock market. If the stock maintains this performance, it would dethrone Meta, which had gained $200 billion in one session at the beginning of February.

The enthusiasm surrounding Nvidia also benefits stocks in the semiconductor sector such as STMicroelectronics, which gained 2.3%. Elsewhere in Europe, the Dutch ASML jumped 5.1%.

The influence of Nvidia’s results is such that the American group has completely relegated the traditional weekly unemployment registrations to the background, like every Thursday. They still demonstrate the strength of the job market in the United States, with 201,000 registrations, and this is less than the 218,000 expected by the consensus and the figure revised to 213,000 from the previous week.

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 also had plenty of time to dissect the publications of French groups. In terms of CAC 40 values, Axa gained 2.6% after having “successfully” achieved its main 2023 financial objectives. The group, for example, published a net profit of more than 7 billion euros, which it plans to return three-quarters to its shareholders.

Engie appreciated by 1.5% 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 limits its decline to 0.1%, the agri-food group has indicated that it expects a slowdown in the growth of its revenues in 2024.

Excluding the flagship index, Sopra Steria (+9.7%) was propelled to peaks on the stock market after announcing annual results above its expectations.

Bureau Veritas (+7.5%) and Plastic Omnium (+6.8%) are also sought after after their publications.

On other markets, the euro lost 0.1% against the dollar to 1.0813 dollars. Oil continues to rise. The April contract on North Sea Brent gained 0.8% to $83.66 per barrel while that on WTI listed in New York also jumped 2% to $78.66 per barrel.