(News Bulletin 247) – The Parisian market changes little this Thursday at mid-session while investors will monitor announcements from the ECB which should, barring any surprises, lower its key rates by a quarter of a percentage point.

On this day of the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting, the Parisian market is opting for caution. The CAC 40 is thus moving close to equilibrium, at mid-session, falling by 0.08% to 7,417.40 points.

The European Central Bank will deliver its decision on rates at 2:15 p.m., an announcement which will be followed by the press conference of its president, Christine Lagarde, at 2:45 p.m.

“It is generally expected that it will reduce its deposit rate by a further 25 basis points (or 0.25 percentage points, editor’s note), bringing it down to 3%, which would bring the total of its rate reductions at 100 basis points since they started in June,” writes Deutsche Bank.

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Sopra Steria disappoints

The Swiss National Bank (SNB), the Swiss central bank, announced its decision to reduce its key rate by 50 basis points this Thursday. This took the markets by surprise and caused a drop in the Swiss franc, which lost 0.3% against the euro.

In terms of values, Sopra Steria fell 8.3% after revealing cautious medium-term growth targets.

Biomérieux rose 2.2% supported by Royal Bank of Canada which initiated its “outperformance” coverage on the stock.

DBV Technologies soars by 26% after announcing that it has agreed with the American health authority on the next steps to take to obtain approval for its patch treating peanut allergy in young children.

On other markets, the euro is stable against the dollar at 1.0506 dollars. Oil changes little. The February contract on North Sea Brent gained 0.04% to $73.55 per barrel while the January contract on WTI listed in New York gained 0.1% to $70.36 per barrel.