(News Bulletin 247) – The Parisian index ended slightly higher this Monday, October 20, gaining 0.4%. Investors did not really react to the downgrading of France’s credit rating by Standard and Poor’s on Friday.

The Paris Stock Exchange is starting the week off on the right foot, this Monday, October 20. The CAC 40 ended up 0.39% at 8,206.07 points. The index once again came close to its session record (8,259.19 points) with a session high of 8,239.67 points.

The market reacted little to the downgrading of France’s credit rating by S&P on Friday. The agency reduced its assessment to “A+” from “AA-” previously.

The agency estimates that political uncertainty will weigh down both French growth and the recovery trajectory of France’s public finances.

“The CAC40 was not very sensitive to this new deterioration and even progressed in the first hours of trading of the day, still driven by the rebound in luxury values ​​and by the slight relaxation of Donald Trump’s remarks towards China, the American president indicating at the end of last week that he still wanted to meet his Chinese counterpart in South Korea in a few days”, deciphers Alexandre Baradez, of IG Markets.

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Kering rises again, BNP in the tough

“The CAC40 only went into the red with the fall of the BNP Paribas share, after a conviction of the bank in the United States”, before ending in the green, he continues.

BNP Paribas lost 7.7% due to a dispute over its activities in Sudan. This following a conviction by a jury on Friday in this case. This verdict requires the bank to pay more than $20 million to three plaintiffs.

BNP Paribas said in a statement that this result was “manifestly erroneous” and indicated that it would appeal. The bank also warned that making extrapolations based on Friday’s judgment was “necessarily erroneous”.

As for other stocks, Kering gained 4.8% after announcing an agreement to sell its “beauty” division to L’Oréal for 4 billion euros. This will allow the luxury group to reduce debt while L’Oréal (+1.2%) will strengthen its position in the vigorously growing perfume and beauty products segment.

Excluding CAC 40, Forvia fell 4.5% after delivering its third quarter sales. The stock was especially weighed down by management’s cautious tone regarding the Nexperia issue, which risks creating semiconductor supply shortages.

ADP gained 2.45%, driven by Morgan Stanley which raised its advice to “overweight”.

On other markets, the euro gained 0.1% against the dollar to 1.1664 dollars. Oil is falling. The December North Sea Brent contract lost 0.9% to $60.77 per barrel while the November contract lost 0.7% to $57.14 per barrel.