Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse reduced its losses a little Monday at midday (-1.35%), even if the fear of a second wave of Covid-19 in the countries having lifted the restrictions remained very present.

At 12.54 (10.54 GMT) the CAC 40 index lost 62.3 points to 4,773.69 points. Friday, it had increased 0.49% after four consecutive sessions of decline, including a fall of 4.71% Thursday.

After opening sharply lower (-2.53%), the Parisian market has caught up with part of its decline.

Wall Street was preparing for its part to open lower. The futures contract for the Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell by 2.23%, that of the broad S&P 500 index by 1.91% and the highly technological Nasdaq by 1.47%.

Health concerns have returned to the forefront as the coronavirus pandemic has shown slight signs of recovery in countries that have deconfigured their economies.

"This climate of risk aversion" which started last Thursday "was confirmed over the weekend after the increase in the number of new cases of Covid-19 in many regions such as Japan, Beijing and the States United, "said Pierre Veyret, analyst at ActivTrades.

Since Friday, Beijing has had 75 new cases of contamination. A dozen new residential areas of the capital were placed under strict confinement and the town hall decided on Monday to close the cultural and sports sites.

This news makes investors fear that the recovery will be longer than they initially hoped. After the sharp increases in early June, they had already been brought to reality by the cautious forecasts of global growth by international institutions the previous week.

"We don't think this is the start of a collapse similar to that of March, but greater volatility could persist," warns Esty Dwek, head of market strategies at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions.

As for the indicators, investors have already taken note of the increase in Chinese industrial production for the second consecutive month (+ 4.4%), while retail sales slowed their decline (-2.8%) after their dive at the start of the year.

In the United States, the manufacturing activity index for the New York region is published at 2.30 p.m. (12.30 p.m. GMT).

-Luxury to the penalty-

In this context, luxury suffered with a decline of 2.21% to 476.60 euros for Kering, 1.99% to 371.55 euros for LVMH and 1.10% to 260.50 euros for L'Oréal .

The banking sector was also on the front line with a loss of 3.02% to 14.32 euros for Société Générale, 2.83% to 33.89 euros for BNP, or 2.12% to 7.95 euros for Agricultural credit.

Sodexo, the biggest drop in the CAC 40 index, was further penalized by the downgrading of its recommendation to "sell" by Goldman Sachs. The title fell by 3.66% to 61.66 euros.

© 2020 AFP