Paris (AFP)

The Paris Stock Exchange ended up Wednesday (+ 0.87%), won late in the day by optimism from Wall Street after being weakened by profit taking.

The CAC 40 index gained 38.82 points to 4,496.98 points. The day before, it had finished down 0.89%.

The Parisian rating started down, remained badly oriented for most of the session before experiencing a boost of energy in the wake of the positive opening of Wall Street.

"Earlier this week, the announcement of advances towards a vaccine raised great hopes, but in the absence of other positive news, investors then took the opportunity to take profits," AFP told AFP. Michaël Jacoby, head of continental Europe brokerage at Oddo Securities.

The American biotechnology company Moderna, one of the most advanced in the race to find a vaccine, announced Monday very preliminary but encouraging results, which had largely contributed to a jump in the stock market indices. But they remain to be taken with caution, in the absence of large-scale tests, planned for July.

Beyond the hesitations of the day, European indices have been moving in a range for some time and "according to the news, good or bad, they will reach the upper or lower bound," said Mr. Jacoby.

"But nobody, according to him, takes a real position in one direction or another before knowing whether there will be a second wave or not and witnessing a concrete recovery of the economy and normalization. the moment we are only at the beginning. "

On the indicators side, inflation in April abruptly slowed in the United Kingdom and in the euro zone the slowdown was even more marked than what had been announced initially.

Crude oil inventories in the United States fell for the second week in a row, once again thwarting market expectations.

After the European stock markets close, investors will monitor the publication of the minutes of the last meeting of the Fed's monetary policy committee.

- Renault in good shape -

On the value front, Renault has taken the lead in the flagship index of the Place de Paris (+ 6.16% to 17.98 euros), while according to the Duck chained the group could close four sites in France. A prospect which led Edouard Philippe to affirm that the government would be "uncompromising" on the "preservation" of sites in France, if the car manufacturer confirmed this information.

CNP Assurances lost 1.66% to 8.91 euros, weighed down by the downgrade of the global reinsurance sector, from stable to negative, by the rating agency S&P Global Ratings.

Danone gained 0.49% to 62.12 euros after announcing that it would offer its shareholders to become a "mission-oriented company" to strengthen its social and environmental commitments and create "lasting value" in a shaken world by the Covid-19 epidemic.

© 2020 AFP