(News Bulletin 247) – The Parisian index reached 8,271.48 points this Tuesday, October 21, exceeding its previous record of 8,259.19 points reached in spring 2024. It also broke its record at the close.

It has been a long time since the CAC 40 reached a new session record. Since May 10, 2024 exactly.

It is now done this Tuesday, October 21. The flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange reached 8,262.81 points, beating its previous record of 8,259.19 points.

The CAC 40 also broke its closing record (8,239.99 points, May 15, 2024) by closing at 8,258.86 points that same Tuesday, up 0.64%.

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Not so impressive records

In fact, these new records deserve to be put into perspective. Since the start of the year, all of the major global indices (S&P 500, DAX 40, FTSE 100) have continued to push back their historic highs.

So much so that the performance over the whole of 2025 of the CAC 40 (+12% approximately) pales in comparison to that of the DAX 40 (+22.3%) in Frankfurt or the Ibex 35 (+36%) in Madrid. The fault of the persistent political uncertainty in France is the poor performance of the flagship sector of the Paris Stock Exchange, luxury, in the first part of 2025.

However, in recent weeks, the stars have aligned (a little) to allow the Parisian index to catch up with some of the delay it is experiencing compared to its peers.

The Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, obtained a reprieve for the survival of his government, narrowly surviving motions of censure. This comes at the cost of certain sacrifices, such as the suspension of pension reform.

“The Lecornu government survived the vote of no confidence, trading budgetary discipline for short-term peace – a solution far from ideal, but sufficient for markets hungry for stability”, judges Stephen Innes of Spi AM.

Luxury, for its part, regained color at the end of summer, and was recently catapulted by LVMH. The number one in the sector gained more than 12% in one session last Wednesday, after delivering activity well above expectations in the third quarter. The rise of the company to around 80 houses had driven the other shares in the compartment.

“Investors are hoping that LVMH, and potentially the entire luxury sector, has turned a corner in foreign currency sales growth over two years, thanks to a more robust mainland China,” Deutsche Bank commented at the time.

Edenred in the spotlight this Tuesday

To return to this Tuesday’s session, the CAC 40 was able to benefit from hopes of an easing of tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Donald Trump has threatened to impose additional 100% customs duties on Chinese imports on November 1.

“But increasingly positive news has given investors hope that higher tariffs will be avoided. President Trump himself told reporters in the Oval Office: ‘I think that at the end of our meetings in South Korea, China and I will have reached a truly fair and excellent trade agreement,'” Deutsche Bank said.

Investors mainly dissected a wave of company results. On the CAC 40 side, Edenred soared by 19.6% after delivering an acceleration in its growth in the third quarter and reassuring itself on several regulatory issues. Eurofins, for its part, finally limited its decline to 2.2% after publishing activity lower than expectations in the third quarter, due to the weakness of its “biopharma” division.

Excluding the CAC 40, OVH collapsed by 20.3%. The group revealed disappointing growth for the fourth quarter, formulated lower than expected objectives for the current financial year, and decided to merge the functions of president and general manager, appointing founder Octave Klaba CEO. On other markets, the euro fell 0.2% to 1.1617 dollars. Oil is rising a bit. The December contract on North Sea Brent gained 0.4% to $61.24 per barrel while that of the same maturity on WTI listed in New York gained 0.4% to $57.73 per barrel.