Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse remained misdirected (-0.46%) Tuesday at midday, still affected by the harmful effects of the coronavirus on businesses, like Apple which published a warning on results.

At 13.28 (12.28 GMT), the CAC 40 index lost 28.15 points to 6.057.80 points, in a trading volume of 1.2 billion euros. The day before, it had ended up slightly by 0.27% in the absence of Wall Street, closed for a holiday.

The Parisian rating started in the red and has not escaped since.

For its part, Wall Street was preparing to start also down. The futures contract for the Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell by 0.62%, that of the broad S&P 500 index by 0.49% and that of the highly technological Nasdaq by 0.73%.

"The stock market indexes are in the red after Apple announced that its forecast of sales (for the second quarter) would not be reached because of the health crisis," said David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets .

"This announcement hit the nail on the head that activity will be affected by the crisis," he added.

"This is the first significant warning from a large group and it should not be the last," said Christopher Dembik, head of economic research at Saxo Bank.

"However, there was reason to rejoice this morning," said John Plassard, investment specialist at Mirabaud, "since China has announced that it will accept requests for new customs duty exemptions" and "this third round of exemption from surcharges is the most substantial ever announced. "

The toll of the new coronavirus reached 1,886 dead Tuesday in mainland China.

But the World Health Organization (WHO) wanted to be reassuring Monday, because apart from the Chinese province of Hubei (center), epicenter of the epidemic, the Covid-19 disease "affects a very small proportion of the population "and its mortality rate is currently only around 2%.

Main indicator of the day, the German ZEW barometer of the confidence of the financial circles was marked by a strong decline, sign of a return of the pessimism between the new coronavirus and the poor German industrial performances.

- Carrefour in mind -

In the field of values, semiconductors suffered from Apple's announcement: STMicroelectronics lost 1.49% to 27.78 euros and Soitec by 2.46% to 87.30 euros.

Very dependent on the Chinese economy, the automotive sector was suffering from renewed concerns, to which was added the publication of the latest indicator concerning the European market showing a fall in January.

Renault was the most affected with a decline of 4.59% to 31.52 euros and Peugeot 2.07% to 19.16 euros.

Alstom sank 4.49% to 48.04 euros while the French Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, was to meet Tuesday with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, who had opposed the merger between Alstom and Siemens, concerning the French group's takeover of the Canadian company Bombardier Transport.

JPMorgan's recommendation on the stock has also been lowered to "neutral".

Conversely, Carrefour took the lead in the CAC 40 index, benefiting (+ 2.38% to 16.14 euros) from an increase in its own to "buy" by Goldman Sachs.

The recommendation on the bioMerieux share (+ 2.95% to 95.95 euros) was also raised to "buy" by Société Générale, which, however, lowered its recommendation to "neutral" on Vicat.

Orchestra-Prémaman took off from 22.53% to 0.36 euro. Placed at the end of September in the safeguard procedure due to financial difficulties, the group announced the abolition of 159 positions in France and 300 abroad, as part of a reorganization.

© 2020 AFP