Paris (AFP)

The Paris Stock Exchange was delighted Thursday (+ 0.55%) not only of the easing of tensions in the Middle East but especially of the confirmation of the imminent signing of the Sino-American partial trade agreement.

At 09:31, the CAC 40 index advanced from 32.94 points to 6,063.94 points. The day before, the Parisian rating had ended up slightly (+ 0.31%).

"The page of the Iranian crisis is already turned, on the markets in any case", comments Tangi Le Liboux, analyst for Aurel BGC.

The geopolitical risk from the Middle East had somewhat calmed the heat of the markets during the last three sessions, without making them bend.

US President Donald Trump played the appeasement card on Wednesday after Iranian missile strikes on bases housing American soldiers in Iraq in retaliation for the removal by Washington of General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad last week.

He certainly announced the immediate imposition of new economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic, but did not mention a military response, removing the specter of an escalation for the time being.

Investors on Thursday could also look forward to the upcoming signing on January 15 of the partial trade agreement between China and the United States.

China's Ministry of Commerce has confirmed that Vice Premier Liu He will travel to Washington from January 13 to 15 to sign the preliminary agreement, which was conceived as a truce in the China-US trade war.

The fact remains that the World Bank has revised down its growth forecasts for 2019 (to 2.4%) and 2020 (to 2.5%).

According to the institution, growth will be much lower this year than that recorded in 2017 (+ 3.2%) before the outbreak of the Sino-American trade war and that of 2018 when it was still 3%.

At the bottom of the CAC 40, Sodexo lost 4.43% to 102.55 points due in particular to the drop in its activity in North America, an area accounting for around 45% of its turnover.

On the other hand, on the SBF 120, Air France-KLM climbed 4.07% to 9.82 euros, driven by the 0.8% increase to 7.7 million the number of passengers carried in December compared to the same month of 2018.

Danone rose 0.88% to 73.22 euros, benefiting from a recommendation increase to "neutral" against "sell" by Goldman Sachs.

© 2020 AFP