Paris (AFP)

The Paris Stock Exchange closed in the red (-0.48%) Tuesday, caught up by the negative economic consequences of the coronavirus, which materialized in particular in the warning on Apple's results.

The CAC 40 index fell 29.1 points to 6,056.82 points, in a limited trading volume of 3.8 billion euros. The day before, it had finished slightly up 0.27%.

"The market is being overtaken by fears that it had forgotten a little about the coronavirus and which are remembered by the warning about Apple's results," Daniel Larrouturou, equity manager at Dôm, told AFP. Finance.

The apple brand "indicates that due to the disruption of both its production chains in China and the closure of most of its outlets in the country as well, it will not be able to reach its objectives for the second quarter ", he detailed.

The toll of the coronavirus epidemic reached Tuesday nearly 1,900 dead, mainly in China, where the number of contaminations Tuesday exceeded the cap of 72,300.

But the World Health Organization is reassuring: outside the central province of Hubei, epicenter of the epidemic, the disease "affects a very small proportion of the population", with a mortality rate of around 2%.

"The market continues to believe that the macroeconomic consequences will be purely temporary and will not significantly affect the outlook for companies in the long term," said Mr. Larrouturou, hence the resilience of the equity markets. .

On the indicator front, the German ZEW barometer of confidence in the financial community was marked by a sharp decline.

On the other hand, the growth of manufacturing activity in the New York region accelerated sharply in February, exceeding analysts' expectations.

In the United Kingdom, the unemployment rate ended 2019 at 3.8%, stable compared to the end of November, which testifies to the good health of the job market despite a struggling economy against the backdrop of Brexit.

- Renault in turmoil -

In the field of values, very dependent on the Chinese economy, the automotive sector suffered from renewed concern about the coronavirus, to which was added the publication of figures for new car deliveries in the European Union in January, which fell 7.5%.

Renault, at the bottom of the CAC 40, fell 6.31% to 30.95 euros and Peugeot 1.12% to 19.34 euros.

In addition, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire said that the State would be "very vigilant on the preservation of employment and industrial sites in France", after the announcement that Renault could remove factories in the as part of a savings plan.

Alstom, which signed a memorandum of understanding to buy the Canadian Bombardier Transportation, sank 3.18% to 48.70 euros while Bruno Le Maire was to discuss this matter Tuesday with the vice-president of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, who opposed the merger between Alstom and Siemens.

Conversely, Carrefour took the lead in the CAC 40 index, benefiting (+ 3.52% to 16.32 euros) from an increase in its own to "buy" by Goldman Sachs.

Sanofi rose 1.52% to 93.71 euros. The pharmaceutical group announced Tuesday that it is partnering with the United States Department of Health to develop a vaccine against the new coronavirus.

© 2020 AFP