Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse ended up slightly up Monday (+ 0.23%), settling timidly in the green on the first day of September when expectations around central banks and trade tensions are strong.

The CAC 40 index appreciated by 12.56 points to 5,493.04 points, in a low trading volume of 1.8 billion euros. Friday he had gained 0.56%.

The Parisian coast has opened to balance and did not farewell thereafter, in reduced volumes, in the absence of Wall Street closed for a holiday.

"Today, without US investors, there was little reason to have big surprises," said AFP analyst Alexandre Baradez, an analyst at IG France.

"But the month of September promises to be rich in stakes and the market prefers not to expose too much in one direction or another," he continued.

"Expectations are many, he noted, both on the side of central banks" with the meeting of the ECB on the 12th and the Fed's 17 and 18, "than on the commercial side with China and the United States. United always entangled in their dispute ".

In the absence of concrete progress at this stage, Washington and Beijing implemented on Sunday their new customs duties on goods imported reciprocally.

"After the stress of August on this, the market is more positive after the G7 summit," said Baradez.

"Donald Trump still manages to channel the markets, he added, but some indicators are starting to show the impact of the trade conflict, not to mention the risk that investors will stop believing the possibility of an agreement for lack of concrete progress ".

In this context, the indicators of the day did not have much influence.

Manufacturing activity in the euro zone contracted again in August, for the seventh consecutive month, while in Great Britain, the PMI index fell to a seven-year low in August.

The week promises to be crucial across the Channel. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has threatened to exclude members of his conservative camp who would try to block an exit without agreement from the European Union, hardening the tone on the eve of the return to parliament.

In Asia, the political crisis was growing on Monday in Hong Kong, where thousands of students dressed in black protested after a weekend of protests among the most violent since the beginning of the movement.

© 2019 AFP