Paris (AFP)

The Paris Bourse ended sharply lower (-1.46%) on Friday, in a session where technical deadlines on the indices encouraged profit-taking two days after a less accommodating message from the US Federal Reserve (Fed).

The CAC 40 index fell 97.10 points to 6,569.16 points, ending five consecutive sessions in the green, at the end of a day when trading volumes were extremely strong (around 7.3 billion euros).

On Thursday, it finished up 0.20%, the high since September 12, 2000.

We had a "choppy session", the concomitant expiration of several options and futures contracts on the indices in this session called the "Four Witches" having "given a bearish impulse" to the market, reports to AFP Daniel Larrouturou , equity manager at Dôm Finance.

In addition, "the Fed has complicated the situation a little, especially for financial stocks, since the interest rate environment is becoming more unfavorable with the market which anticipates a gradual rise in short rates and, on the other hand, a stagnation of long rates", adds- he does.

However, the profitability of banks is limited by this reduction in the gap between short and long rates, on which a large part of their income is based.

Securities linked to commodities and industrial stocks, which had benefited in recent weeks from the anticipation of a sharp acceleration in inflation, are also suffering in the wake of the message from the US Federal Reserve (Fed), explains Mr. Larrouturou.

On Wednesday, the Fed delivered a less accommodating message than expected, with a majority of its members believing that key rates should be raised twice by the end of 2023.

She also reiterated that she considered the rise in inflation - which it now expects at + 3.4% in 2021, more or less what the markets were already anticipating - as transitory.

Conversely, "the very good performance" of luxury stocks in recent days, which have a significant weighting within the CAC 40, has allowed "to hold the index so far", according to the manager, even if LVMH and Kering suffered some losses on Friday.

Finally, for its first steps on the stock market, Aramis Group sold 1.30% to 22.70 euros.

The used car site Aramis Auto announced Thursday that it had successfully completed its IPO, valuing the group at 1.9 billion euros.

© 2021 AFP