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Having opened down on Friday and having spent the morning relatively flat on that opening level the France (CAC) 40 has recently taken a sharp upward turn. While it remains to be seen whether that impetus can be held for long enough to keep the CAC in positive territory for the day, losses have been clawed back and the index is currently 0.12% up on yesterday’s close.
Positive sentiment data for the Eurozone released a few hours ago may be helping to fuel the recent upswing. Overall economic confidence within the Eurozone is at its highest level since March 2011, with a December reading of 107.8, an improvement on November when the index showed 106.6. Services sector, construction sector, retail sector and consumer sentiment all showed improvement from November to December.
Among the individual constituents on the France 40, the day’s strongest gainer so far is Kering, the luxury goods holding that owns Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Puma, among several other brands, up 2.05%. Air Liquide, up 0.85% today, has announced the completion of the acquisition of Serdex, which produces natural active ingredients for cosmetics, from Germany’s Bayer for an undisclosed sum. Airbus is also 0.88% to the good.
The biggest and only major loser so far today has been pharma company Sanofi, which is currently registering a loss of 2.57% as the week heads into its closing straight. The fall comes on news that a U.S. judge has ruled to permanently block the sale of the company’s new cholesterol-lowering drug Praluent. The drug was found to infringe a patent held by U.S. peer Amgen for its rival product. Sanofi is relying heavily on a group of new products, including Praluent, it is trying to bring to market to offset the decline in sales of its blockbuster insulin medication Lantus.
Among the other fallers today are oil and gas industry companies Total, the integrated super major, down 0.56% and project manager and engineer to the industry Technip, with a 1.06% loss. Oil prices have softened today.
