Paris (AFP)

The Paris Stock Exchange ended in the red (-0.51%) Monday, still concerned about the situation in the Middle East where tension rose a notch over the weekend, while remaining above 6,000 points.

The CAC 40 index lost 30.5 points to finish at 6.013.59 points, in a moderate trading volume of 3.1 billion euros. Friday, it had finished stable (+ 0.04%).

"The markets on Friday considered that tensions between Iran and the United States could be limited to skirmishes in Iraqi territory" but "Donald Trump's vindictive tweets this weekend increased the risk of a conflict that would affect the territory of Iran, "summed up AFP Daniel Larrouturou, equity manager at Dôm Finance.

"This is what the market realizes today with the rise in oil and the rise in gold," he added.

The markets had started to downgrade as early as Friday after the assassination by the United States of a powerful Iranian general on Iraqi soil.

Tension increased further over the weekend, with the Iraqi parliament notably adopting a resolution on Sunday calling for an end to the presence of American troops in the country, a vote that led the United States to brandish the threat of sanctions against Baghdad.

President Donald Trump also threatened to strike 52 targeted sites in Iran on Sunday if the Islamic Republic attacks American personnel or sites in retaliation for the death of General Qassem Soleimani. For its part, Tehran announced a further reduction in its commitments contained in the international agreement on its nuclear program.

However, "the market still relativizes the risk which seems neither certain nor imminent, this is why it goes back up from its lows to go back above 6,000 points, also encouraged by the good resistance of Wall Street ", said Mr. Larrouturou.

- Defensive values ​​in shape -

On the indicators side, the growth of private activity accelerated slightly in the euro zone, while it recovered a little in the United Kingdom in December, according to the PMI composite index of the firm Markit.

In contrast, in China, activity in services experienced its lowest growth rate in December 2019.

The oil sector continued to benefit from the rise in oil prices: at the top of the CAC 40, Total gained 1.45% to 50.44 euros.

We are witnessing "good resistance or even an increase in defensive values", namely food and health, according to Mr. Larrouturou. "On the other hand, it is the most cyclical stocks which suffer the most", in particular "the semiconductors, which had risen a lot, and technological stocks in general".

Ipsen fell 0.94% to 78.65 euros, suffering from a lowering of its recommendation to "underweight" against "neutral" previously by JPMorgan.

The group however announced Monday that its product Dysport (botulinum toxin) had been approved by the United Kingdom in the symptomatic treatment of focal spasticity of the upper limbs in children with cerebral palsy.

Airbus did not benefit (-0.43% to 133.46 euros) from the finalization of an order for 100 single-aisle aircraft of the A320neo family by the low-cost American company Spirit Airlines.

Air France-KLM, affected by the rise in crude prices, for its part dropped 0.93% to 9.35 euros.

© 2020 AFP