Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse ended Thursday up (+ 1.44%) a very volatile session, just above 4,500 points, encouraged by the surge of fresh money from the Fed, but still on the lookout for oil and Eurogroup meeting.

The CAC 40 index gained 64.10 points to 4,506.85 points. The day before, it had finished in balance (+ 0.10%).

Since last Thursday, the Parisian odds have gained 6.77%, which brings its losses since January 1st to 24.61%.

After an opening in the green, the Parisian place was breathless from midday.

The Paris Bourse will be closed from Friday to Monday inclusive for the long Easter weekend, like all other Euronext places.

At the bedside of the American economy since the start of the coronavirus crisis, the United States Central Bank announced Thursday 2.3 trillion dollars in new loans, intended especially for businesses and local communities hit by the pandemic.

"The mission of the American Federal Reserve is clearly to save jobs" and "the surge in credit shows the urgency of the situation", underlines Frédéric Rozier, portfolio manager at Mirabaud France.

The announcement by the Federal Reserve comes as the United States registered 6.6 million new unemployment benefit claimants in one week, further evidence of the prevailing economic disaster.

In addition, "the market has integrated an agreement on a major cut in oil production and has an interest in being served," said Mr. Rozier.

"He expects a lot and perhaps too much from this meeting which can cause the market to skid" after the long Easter weekend, he warns.

The main oil-producing countries, led by OPEC, were brought together on Thursday by interposed screens to support prices that collapsed with the Covid-19 pandemic.

- Sodexo leads the CAC 40 -

OPEC members and other participants, including their partners through the Opep + agreement, discuss a massive reduction in global crude oil production, their main weapon in the face of falling global demand for black gold.

For the rest, "the market is currently fueled by central bank decisions, but we must not forget that the fundamentals are bad and that the economy is at a standstill," observes Mr. Rozier.

"The next step will be less pleasant with the phase of publications by companies, none of which is able to give a clear picture of their prospects", in a context of unprecedented health crisis, he adds.

However, US Central Bank President Jerome Powell said on Thursday that there was "every reason to believe that the economic recovery" will be solid "in the United States, once the crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic is over.

In terms of values, Sodexo kept the lead on the CAC 40 throughout the session (+ 12.9% to 71.6 euros), investors now seeing it more clearly regarding the group's prospects. The latter anticipates a reduction in its turnover "from 2.4 to 2.8 billion euros" in the second half of its 2019-2020 fiscal year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Fed's announcements have boosted the banking and insurance sectors: BNP Paribas took 5.38% to 28.41 euros, Société Générale (+ 2.99% to 15.02 euros) and Crédit Agricole (+ 3.84% to 6.97 euros). Scor rose 4.95% to 22.88 euros.

Airbus (+ 1.31% to 28.64 euros) has decided to reduce its production rate by one third to be able to meet customer demand while adapting its capacities to changes in the global market for aeronautics facing the coronavirus crisis.

© 2020 AFP