Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse gained 0.50% in mid-session Monday, monitoring the French health situation while a case of massive sale of blocks of shares by an American fund caused a stir in world markets.

The flagship CAC 40 index took 29.79 points to 6,018.60 points around 12.50 p.m., after losing 0.15% over the whole of last week.

A relative optimism animated the Parisian place on Monday while England, on the strength of its massive vaccination campaign, begins the second phase of its very gradual deconfinement plan, authorizing meetings and outdoor sports.

On the dark side, however, continental Europe is still mired in its third epidemic wave, hesitating between maintaining restrictions or tightening, which generated a session in dispersed order on the Stock Exchanges of the Old Continent.

In France, "nothing is decided" said in the Sunday Journal Emmanuel Macron about a potential new turn of the screw, the executive however qualifying the situation as "critical".

In the event of hard re-containment, "we should collectively review our optimism on the very moderate cost in terms of growth in the second quarter," warns Sebastian Paris Horvitz, strategist at LBPAM.

Market participants were also looking at the collateral effects of the massive sale of shares in investment firm Archegos Capital, Bloomberg news reported on Sunday.

This company, which manages the fortune of businessman Bill Hwang, has shed shares in American media companies and Chinese companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The first consequences on the big names in finance were felt.

Heavy losses could be recorded in the accounts of Japanese bank Nomura and Credit Suisse, which respectively plunged 16.33% at the close and 14.19% at mid-session on the Zurich Stock Exchange.

French banks retreat

The French banking sector suffered the turmoil of this affair: BNP Paribas lost 1.66% to 50.81 euros, Société Générale 1.62% to 21.88 euros.

Crédit Agricole took 0.29% to 12.27 euros.

Ardian optimistic about the Suez-Veolia affair

The head of the Ardian Infrastructure fund Mathias Burghardt said he was "quite confident" about "a compromise" in the battle between the water and waste treatment groups, Veolia (+ 0.28% to 21.56 euros ) and Suez (-0.14% to 18.02 euros), in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche.

Spanish order for Alstom

The railway manufacturer (+ 1.47% to 41.54 euros) announced Monday that it had received an order of more than 1.4 billion euros for the supply of suburban trains in Spain, which will be built in the plant that owns the French group in the Barcelona region.

© 2021 AFP