(BFM Stock Exchange) – Many values ​​are stored in sectors with names sometimes not very evocative, such as L’Oréal which is integrated into “Staples”. Small decryption.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 companies are listed in the world, according to the World Federation of Exchanges. Logically, the number of sectors and sub-sectors present on the stock market is dense.

However, identifying the “good” sectors and therefore the right comparables remains crucial for market specialists.

In addition to the fundamentals of a company, analysts and managers look at the multiple scholarship holders of the groups of the same universe to find out if a specific action is overvalued or undervalued.

For example, Renault is exchanged around 4 times the benefits expected in 2026 against 5 times for Stellantis and 4.2 times for Volkswagen. In tech, these multiples go to Dassault Systèmes 28 times and 31 for the German SAP.

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Some sectors remain easy to recognize, due to their simple names, such as health, chemistry, oil, luxury, banks or the media. But others speak much less. A fortiori because they are expressed in English, an ultra-dominant language in the world of finance and the scholarship.

We have compiled some examples of sectors with a frankly unscrupulous names. But which, however, bring together certain well -known groups of the French or European scholarship.

Let us recall, in passing, that certain actions are sometimes difficult to classify. Ferrari is the best example: the group with prank horse remains a car manufacturer. But due to its ultra-weed customers and its economic model, analysts compare the Transalpin group more in Hermès.

Here is an overview of some of these sectors with cryptic names.

“Utilities” with Engie and Veolia

This term is very difficult to translate into French even if we can sometimes try the term “communities services”, which is not necessarily clearer. This sector brings together gas, electricity and water and waste processing companies, with both industrial and public customers.

Two CAC 40 companies appear in this sector, namely Engie and Veolia. We can also quote the Germans RWE and E.ON, the Italian Enel, the Spaniard Iberdrola or the Danish Orsted, specializing in the production of renewable energy.

These companies often have activities subject to regulated prices and/or with long -term contracts. The “utilities” recently gained light on the stock market (which is quite unusual for this sector) because these values ​​have behaved well. Faced with the uncertainty caused by American customs duties, their fairly local economic model, was able to offer a (relative) shelter to investors.

The very large universe of “goods capital”

Another universe difficult to translate, the “boods capital” or “equipment goods” bring together companies that design goods with high capital intensity. These groups evolve in fairly varied segments.

Alstom belongs to this sector, as is its comparable scholarship holders Knorr-Bremse, listed in Frankfurt, and Stadler, in Zurich. Large industrial conglomerate, Siemens is also one of the “boods capital”, as well as the manufacturers of elevator Schindler and Kone, or the Swedish specialist in locksmiths, key and automatic doors Assa Abloy.

On the CAC 40, the two manufacturers of electrical equipment, Schneider and Legrand, enter this sector. JPMorgan also classifies the Nexans cable manufacturer.

Goldman Sachs, for its part, sometimes stores Airbus and Safran in the “Goods capital” in this box, even if aeronautics/defense (in reality a sub-sector of “Goods capital”) is a full-fledged group in the ultra-majority of design offices.

Companies in this sector are often cyclical values, and the cash generation is particularly followed by analysts on several titles of this compartment. This is the case on Airbus and especially on Alstom, in which the free cash flow is monitored like milk on fire by analysts. This is evidenced by the latest annual results of the manufacturer of the TGV, heavily sanctioned by the market (-17.28%) due to disappointing objectives on the cash for the current financial year.

The Staples, the “real” sector of L’Oréal

We often hear that L’Oréal is a luxury group. The cosmetics and beauty products specialist is known to be associated with Kering, LVMH and Hermès and thus train the acronym “Kohl”, bringing together these four flagship values ​​of the Parisian square.

This idea remains questionable, because L’Oréal does not produce jewelry, watches or leather goods, but creams, shampoos or perfumes (even if LVMH also designs perfumes and cosmetics).

On the stock market, analysts arrange L’Oréal in a sector called “Staples” which refers to so -called “base” consumer products.

This universe brings together companies not always known to the general public but which have famous brands of beauty and hygiene. This is the case of the German Beiersdorf, owner of Nivea, considered as a comparable of L’Oréal, or Procter & Gamble (Head & Shoulders, Tampax, Ariel, Braun, Gilette), Henkel (Mir, Schwarzkopf, Super Croix) and Unilever (axis, Ben & Jerry’s, Knorr, Rexona). The Puig and Coty perfumers and the Galderma dermatological care specialist also fall into this category.

The companies mentioned above are sometimes stored in a sub-sector of “staples” called more simply “HPC” for “Household and Personal Care”, in other words household and personal care products.

Agrifood groups like Danone and Nestlé as well as alcoholiers, such as Pernod Ricard or Heinken, also belong to the universe of “Staples”. Even if there again, they often constitute sub-sectors analyzed aside. Spirits in Europe are thus relatively numerous in Europe with Pernod Ricard, Rémy Cointreau, Diageo or Campari.

The “reit”, or “siic” in the language of Molière

A slightly barbaric acronym which, this time, has a very direct equivalent in French. The word “reit” refers to “Real Estate Investment Trust”, that is to say simply the companies that finance and invest in real estate, that is, the property. In French we are talking about “SIIC”, for “listed real estate investment companies”.

Groups in this sector can operate shopping centers, such as Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Klépierre, manage hypermarket walls, such as Carmila and Mercialys, or be more present in office and/or residential real estate, such as Icade or Gecina or German Vonovia. The Kaufman & Broad and Nexity promoters are, however, excluded from SIIC.

The SIIC has a status with a particular tax regime which exempts them from corporate tax on their rental activities or on their disposal added value but obliges them to normally (postponement can be made) a very high part (95% of the recurrent result, 100% of the dividends perceived of the subsidiaries) of their profits to their shareholders.

The “OEM”, like Renault

The word OEM (“Original Equipment Manufacturer”) is in fact a generic term which refers to companies that produce goods or manufactured documents.

If it is sometimes found in aeronautics to designate aircraft manufacturers, this acronym is inevitable in a sector: the automobile. Analysts and even the leaders of this industry simply use it to designate the manufacturers, as opposed to the equipment manufacturers (“auto parts” or sometimes “suppliers”).