(Reuters) – The main European stock markets opened in mixed order on Friday, with investors adopting a cautious attitude ahead of announcements planned for Saturday on the Chinese recovery plan, and as the market assesses the French government’s budget for 2025.

In Paris, the CAC 40, which gained 0.07% to 7,546.85 points around 07:49 GMT, after opening slightly lower. In Frankfurt, the Dax rose 0.09% and in London, the FTSE 100 lost 0.02%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index is up 0.02%, the FTSEurofirst 300 is down 0.03% and the Stoxx 600 is up 0.01%.

The markets are digesting the finance bill presented by the French government for 2025, which provides for 60 billion euros in spending cuts and tax increases for the rich and big businesses to reduce the GDP to 5% of GDP. France’s public deficit, under pressure from the markets and Brussels.

Caution is all the more necessary as Fitch is expected to update its opinion on French debt on Friday at the end of the day.

Investors are also awaiting the press conference of the Chinese Ministry of Finance on Saturday, with high expectations for the announcement of recovery measures, after the strong disappointment felt at the start of the week over the lack of details on the support plans of the from the main economic planning body of the Asian giant.

Stellantis values ​​fell 1.3% after confirming that its general director Carlos Tavares would retire at the end of his term in early 2026.

BP, which said Friday that falling refining margins would reduce its third-quarter profit by $400 million to $600 million compared to the previous three months, dropped 0.4%.

Zalando, which revised its outlook for 2024 upwards on Thursday evening, gained 1.3%.

Sainsbury’s drops 4.1% after the Qatar Investment Authority, the British supermarket group’s biggest shareholder, sold 306 million pounds of shares.

(Writing by Diana Mandiá, editing by Kate Entringer)

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