Paris (AFP)
The Paris Stock Exchange continued to evolve in strong decline (-2.53%) Friday at midday, past its initial plunge, in a market revaluing with a crash the economic consequences of the epidemic of Covid-19, including the spread continues outside of China.
At 2:15 p.m. (1:15 p.m. GMT), the CAC 40 index sank by 139.09 points to 5,356.51 points after falling to 5,242.60 points, a lowest since August 15, 2019. The day before, it had already accused of heavy losses of 3.32%.
Between last Friday and its lowest of the day, the flagship index of the Place de Paris fell by 13%.
For its part, Wall Street was preparing to open on a measured decline after having unscrewed by more than 4% the day before. The futures contract for the flagship Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.65%, that of the broad S&P 500 index by 0.76% and that of the highly technological Nasdaq by 0.81%.
After a plunge of more than 3% at the opening, the Parisian odds increased its losses in the morning, before going up a little.
"The stock market panic continues, investors being terrified that the health crisis causes a stop of the economic activity across Europe", indicated in a note David Madden, an analyst of CMC Markets. "The infection spreads across continental Europe and more particularly in Germany."
A thousand people have been quarantined in western Germany, a country that now has 53 confirmed cases, according to health officials on Friday.
If China was until recently the only global center of coronavirus, the risk has increased with the emergence of new source countries such as South Korea, Iran and Italy.
"We are at a turning point," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noting that in the past two days, the daily number of new people infected worldwide has been higher than that recorded in China. , which continues to decrease thanks to quarantine measures.
"No country should think that it will have no case at home. It would be a fatal mistake, literally. The virus does not respect borders," he warned.
In France, where 38 cases have been identified, the government announced Friday new measures to help businesses and employees.
For companies, the coronavirus will be "considered a case of force majeure", announced the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire, after a meeting with the social partners at the Ministry of Labor.
In terms of indicators, French growth was slightly revised upward to 1.3% for 2019, but household consumption fell 1.1% in January.
Still in France, consumer prices rose 1.4% in February, slightly less than in January (1.5%).
In Germany, inflation figures for February are also on the program, like the 2019 annual report of the Federal Bank.
Across the Atlantic, household spending and income and inflation for January are still expected, before consumer confidence from the University of Michigan in February.
- Good resistance of luxury -
In terms of values, almost all of the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 saw red.
Lagardère plunged 9.91% to 15.63 euros, weighed down by a net loss of 15 million euros during its 2019 financial year.
The airline sector also suffered the blow, like ADP (-6.54% to 3.46 euros) and Air France-KLM (-4.36% to 7.06 euros).
Korian, the number one European retirement home, fell 4.98% to 40.82 euros despite the announcement of 2019 net profit up 10.4% of results in line with its objectives, thanks to acquisitions and a growing diversification of its activities.
Conversely, Saint-Gobain rather limited its losses (-2.30% to 32.28 euros), the group having published 2019 results on the rise, with growth in sales and profits, supported by an improvement in profitability.
Defensive or semi-defensive stocks such as those linked to consumer goods or luxury also resisted: Casino rose 0.14% to 35.11 euros, LVMH 0.35% to 371.15 euros and Rémy Cointreau 0.59% to 93.30 euros.
Bureau Veritas, on the other hand, sank 3.54% to 22.09 euros after having revised down part of its 2020 targets on Thursday because of "the force majeure situation linked to the Covid-19".
© 2020 AFP