Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse continued to rise on Wednesday at mid-session (+ 0.57%), driven by Carrefour and Kering which allowed the Parisian quotation to rebound the day after a sharp decline.

At 12:40 (10:40 GMT), the CAC 40 index advanced 35.64 points to 6,200.69 points.

On Tuesday, it ended sharply down 2.09%, ending five consecutive sessions of increases.

“Even if some investors have managed to stop the sell movement, at least temporarily, shortly after the opening this morning, the situation remains uncertain for most markets,” warns Pierre Veyret, analyst for ActivTrades.

"The increase in coronavirus cases in Asia, India and Japan, as well as new restrictions on overseas travel, appear to have caused a reassessment of the recovery," adds Michael Hewson, chief analyst at CMC Markets UK.

On the health front, if vaccination campaigns continue in Europe and the United States, the latest reports of contaminations and deaths in India and Brazil remind us that the pandemic is not weakening and that the variants continue to spread.

President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Tuesday that vaccination "is accelerating", with nearly 18 million doses injected in France.

The French executive could lift on May 2 the ban on moving more than 10 km from his home, possibly reduce the curfew and reopen from mid-May terraces, non-food shops and places of culture, with reduced gauges.

In addition, several large groups published quarterly results on Wednesday morning that were broadly in line with expectations, with some companies returning to their pre-Covid level of activity.

Accor must unveil its own after the closing.

In the United Kingdom, inflation rebounded in March to 0.7% year on year, compared to 0.4% in February, mainly due to the price of fuel and clothing.

Carrefour inspires investors

The distributor posted strong sales in the first quarter and announced its first share buyback program in ten years.

Attracted by this transaction, investors raised the price by 4.67% to 15.80 euros, at the top of the CAC 40.

Valneva bypasses the EU

In the absence of an agreement with the European Union, the Franco-Austrian laboratory will turn to country-by-country discussions to provide its candidate vaccine against Covid-19.

After this announcement, the title lost 7.12% to 11.88 euros.

Kering validated

The French group achieved a turnover in the first quarter of 2021 which exceeded the pre-pandemic level of 2019. Its share took 2.44% to 641.60 euros and carried in its wake LVMH (+ 2.21% to 618 , 80 euros) and Hermès (+ 1.34% to 1,023.50 euros).

Air France is climbing

The French state is not intended to further control the capital of Air France-KLM, according to Bercy.

The state doubled its stake in the air group on Monday.

The Air France title climbed 2.69% to 4.85 euros.

New adventure in the Suez-Veolia project

The Ardian and GIP investment funds have decided that they will not participate in the "new Suez" project, the future group provided for by the merger agreement between Suez (-0.38% to 19.89 euros) and Veolia (-0.73% to 24.59 euros), deemed unsatisfactory.

The Meridiam investment fund said it was "ready" to compensate for their departure.

Crédit Agricole is (further) increasing its offer

The Crédit Agricole group (-0.21% to 12.20 euros) has once again raised the price of its public tender offer aimed at buying all the shares of the Italian bank Credito Valtellinese (Creval), which passes at 12.50 euros per share.

© 2021 AFP