(News Bulletin 247) – The Paris Stock Exchange fell mid-session, while the PMI indices in the euro zone fell in June.

The Paris Stock Exchange is preparing to end a much less eventful week than the previous one, during which the CAC 40 lost more than 6%, penalized by political uncertainty in France.

This Friday, the Parisian index dropped 0.6% to 7,626.48 points at mid-session, and for the moment gained 1.6% over the whole week.

Investors are taking note this Friday of the publication of the PMI indices, leading indicators of private sector activity, at half mast in the euro zone in June. The composite index, which brings together services and manufacturing activities, fell to 50.8 from 52.2 in May. Remember that an index at 50 marks the border between a contraction and an expansion of activity.

France’s composite PMI rose from 48.9 to 48.2 in June. “The uncertainty linked to the next legislative elections is causing a certain paralysis among French companies, which fear a deterioration in the economy,” explains Norman Libeke, economist at the Hamburg Commercial Bank, which compiles this data with S&P.

>> Access our exclusive graphic analyses, and gain insight into the Trading Portfolio

Cyclicals are falling

“In fact, some respondents to the survey attribute the decline in their activity to the upcoming elections, while demand is also trending downward, as evidenced by the first decrease in new business in three months in the service sector,” he adds.

Capital Economics qualifies the impact of the elections on the French figure. “We will not (…) insist too much on this point, because the French PMI index began to fall in May, before the start of the political unrest,” explains the think tank.

“The sharp decline in the Eurozone composite PMI index in June suggests that a solid recovery in the Eurozone economy is not a given, with activity apparently stagnating this month,” comments more globally Capital Economics.

On the value side, the CAC 40 is suffering as a whole with cyclical values ​​falling sharply but not disproportionately. This is the case of Renault (-2.7%), Saint-Gobain (-2.4%), STMicroelectronics (-2.4%), BNP Paribas (-2.1%), Société Générale (-1. 7%).

Danone regained 1.5% after having suffered the day before the presentation to the market of objectives without good surprises.

On other markets, the euro dropped 0.2% against the dollar, to 1.0638 dollars. Oil is close to equilibrium. The August contract on Brent from the North Sea lost 0.06% to 85.66 dollars per barrel, while that of the same maturity on WTI listed in New York was almost stable at 81.29 dollars per barrel.