The Paris stock market is expected to open slightly lower on Monday after the first round of the presidential election, in which far-right candidate Marine Le Pen qualified for the second round with incumbent President Emmanuel Macron.
The futures contract for the star CAC 40 index fell 0.44% about thirty minutes before session opening. On Friday, it finished up 1.34%, marked by central banks’ desire to show determination to fight inflation.
“European markets should open lower with no signs of improvement for the CAC 40 after the first voting weekend in France,” said Michael Hewson of CMC Markets.
Emmanuel Macron’s “greater than expected” lead (27-28%) over Marine Le Pen (23-24%) fueled “a brief recovery in Asia” for the euro, which however eventually declined, the analyst added.
The prospects for the second round, with the latest polls showing the incumbent president narrowly winning the election, is worrying.
“A narrowing of the gap in favor of Le Pen, who is known for his apparent sympathy for Russia, could dampen investor sentiment ahead of the latest elections scheduled for April 24,” confirmed Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote.
In addition to the French presidential election, the health situation in China could also weigh on the Paris index after Asia became nervous. “There are growing fears that a prolonged lockdown in China, which could spread to other major industrial cities, will obscure the already bleak outlook for China’s growth,” Hewson said.
In addition, the Russian bombing of major fuel depots in Ukraine threatens farmers’ fuel supplies as the planting season is about to begin.
The economic calendar is also full of key indicators, with plenty of inflation data released this week following Monday morning’s announcement of near zero economic growth in the UK in February (+0.1%). “All of this data carries upside risks and could add to the noise around a faster tightening by the Bank of England,” Hewson noted.
“My overriding impression at the start of the week is that risks are mounting on multiple fronts, led by Covid zero and the potential slowdown in China, followed by inflation,” he summed up.
– Among the values following on Monday
Societe Generale: The French bank announced Monday that it would “discontinue operations in Russia and sell all of its stake in Rosbank, a heavyweight in the Russian banking sector, as well as its insurance subsidiaries in the country,” according to a press release. † This “proposed transaction should lead” to a negative impact on its accounts of 3.1 billion euros, the bank said.
TF1: The audiovisual groups TF1, M6 and Altice announced on Friday that they had signed agreements for the sale of the TFX and 6ter channels to Altice, in the event of the effective completion of the planned merger between TF1 and M6.
Airbus: Airbus took 104 new orders in March but recorded 63 cancellations for A330s ordered by Malaysian company Air Asia X, which is in trouble today.
cdu/jvi/er
