CAC 40 Modestly Lower Despite Soft Inflation Data

(RTTNews) - France's CAC 40 is down in negative territory Thursday morning with investors reacting to some earnings reports and other corporate news, and digesting the nation's inflation data. The focus is also on geopolitical news.

The CAC 40, which dropped to 8,2890.61 from a high of 8,366.30, was down 28.70 points or 0.34% at 8,302.70 a few minutes ago.

Kering and Thales are down 3.9% and 3.4%, respectively. Thales slipped following a rating downgrade of the stock by Deutsche Bank.

LVMH is declining by about 2.2% and Capgemini is down 1.7%.

TotalEnergies, Renault, Saint Gobain, Stellantis, Vinci, Veolia Environment, Airbus, Eiffage, Accor, ArcelorMittal, Air Liquide and L'Oreal are lower by 0.6 to 1.25%.

Among the gainers, STMicroElectronics, Schneider Electric and AXA are up 1.1 to 1.4%. Societe Generale and Credit Agricole are gaining nearly 1% each.

BNP Paribas, Carrefour, Unibail Rodamco, Engie, Euronext, Danone and EssilorLuxottica are up 0.6 to 0.9%.

Alstom gained about 1%. The French rail transport systems company said it has inked a contract of around EUR 500 million to supply 26 additional double-decker trains of the Coradia Max type to the Landesanstalt Schienenfahrzeuge Baden-Wurttemberg.

Final data from the statistical office INSEE showed France's inflation weakened slightly at the end of the year, as estimated, primarily due to sharper fall in energy prices.

The consumer price index posted an annual increase of 0.8%, following November's 0.9% rise. The statistical office confirmed that inflation eased to the slowest since May, when the rate was 0.7%.

EU harmonized inflation also slowed to 0.7 percent, as estimated, from 0.8 percent in November.

On a monthly basis, both the CPI and the HICP moved up 0.1% each, reversing previous month's 0.2% drop.