Paris (AFP)

The Paris Stock Exchange ended sharply higher (+ 1.76%) Thursday, continuing to believe in a rapid recovery in the economy on both sides of the Atlantic, a sentiment reinforced by the announcement of the recovery plan European Wednesday.

The CAC 40 index advanced 82.65 points to 4,771.39 points, in a high trading volume of 4.3 billion euros. The day before, it had already finished clearly in the green (+ 1.79%). It has grown by more than 7% since Monday.

The index "seems to want to settle above 4,700 points, beating the highs of April, which is something positive, even if the situation is a little more hesitant on the American side," notes from AFP Andrea Tuéni, an analyst at Saxo Bank.

"Morale has been pretty good since the beginning of the week on the markets", with the main factor "optimism around the deconfinement and the reopening of economies, especially in the United States", he explains.

The other promising element is "the announcements that were made by the European Commission (Wednesday) and this recovery plan which is rather well received by the market", adds Mr. Tuéni.

The European executive has proposed a recovery plan of 750 billion euros - 500 billion in non-repayable grants and 250 billion in loans - to stimulate the economies of the countries most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences .

Finally, if Wall Street is more circumspect in the face of "geopolitical tensions between the United States and China which are still reaching a higher level, on the European side we are able to ignore them for the moment, which is also a sign that the movement (bullish) seems to be strong enough, "he judges.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the United States' decision to revoke the special status granted to Hong Kong on Wednesday because of the erosion of freedoms in the former British colony was "barbaric".

- Luxury in shape -

In terms of indicators, the inflation rate in Germany decelerated again in May, falling to 0.6% year on year, its lowest level since 2016, according to the statistics institute Destatis.

In the United States, the total number of unemployed workers receiving benefits fell for the first time since the onset of the crisis, while 2.12 million people again registered as unemployed last week, according to the Labor Department.

Durable goods orders fell 17.2% in April, their second consecutive month of sharp declines.

Still across the Atlantic, home sales pledges fell 21.8% in April over a month, a much steeper decline than analysts had predicted, according to the National Federation of Real Estate Agents (NAR).

In terms of values, luxury has pulled the odds: Hermès gained 4.86% to 746.60 euros, LVMH 3.46% to 386.80 euros and Kering took 2.86% to 480.95 euros.

Technology stocks, heckled Wednesday in the wake of their American counterparts, have also picked up. Capgemini gained 3.04% to 92.80 euros and STMicroelectronics 2.07% to 22.21 euros.

TF1 (+ 4.70% to 5.15 euros) and M6 (+ 6.40% to 10.64 euros) benefited from an increase in their recommendation to "overweight" by JPMorgan.

© 2020 AFP