Paris (AFP)

The Paris Stock Exchange ended in green Monday (+ 1.23%), at its highest level in 12 years, galvanized by the announcement of the preliminary trade agreement between the United States and China, a sign of bodes well for global growth.

The CAC 40 index rose from 72.64 points to 5.991.66 points, a level not seen since July 23, 2007, in an average trading volume of 3.5 billion euros. On Friday, it had already finished up 0.59%.

From the opening, the Parisian rating began the last full week of exchanges of the year with a winning streak. She continued her momentum throughout the session, even temporarily exceeding the threshold of 6,000 points.

"The event of the day is that the CAC 40 hit 6,000 points", a level it had not reached in twelve years, "driven by the outcome of trade negotiations", commented to AFP Daniel Larrouturou, equity manager at Dôm Finance.

Beijing and Washington announced a truce in their trade war on Friday.

The conclusion or not of an agreement was "one of the main assumptions that weighed on the market for many months," said Mr. Larrouturou.

Pending the signing in early January of this preliminary agreement, Beijing on Sunday waived new tariffs that should have hit American products.

For its part, the Trump administration has suspended all new surcharges on Chinese goods in the United States in exchange for Beijing's commitment to buy, in particular, more American agricultural products.

"We do not yet know all the ins and outs of this agreement, but it is a positive announcement for the market which considers it likely to boost global growth a little next year," said Mr. Larrouturou.

"The main theme of 2020 will be whether there is a rebound in global economic activity," predicted the specialist.

Even before the announcement of this trade truce, the broad victory of the conservative Boris Johnson in the legislative elections in the United Kingdom had given a breath of fresh air to the European markets Friday, dispelling the uncertainties on Brexit.

On the indicators side, the growth of private activity in the euro zone stagnated in December, leading to the weakest expansion for the quarter since 2013, according to the first estimate on Monday of the PMI composite index from the Markit firm.

During this period, it also stagnated in France.

In the United States, the pace of growth in manufacturing activity in the New York region accelerated slightly in December.

© 2019 AFP