The flagship CAC 40 index lost 19.59 points to 7,161.52 points in weak trading volume, after rising 0.57% the day before, setting a record at the close.
Shortly after the opening, the Parisian index however made a breakthrough to reach 7,201.65 points, improving its session record achieved the day before.
He then gradually turned back.
"The session was calm," Christopher Dembik, director of strategy and macroeconomics at Saxo Bank, commented to AFP.
"We are essentially taking profits made automatically via algorithms because the investors have already left".
Despite the decline recorded on Wednesday, "the market remains dynamic, it was not worried by a particular subject," he continued.
The evolution of the pandemic remains the main news followed by the markets.
The number of Covid-19 contaminations is breaking records in many countries including France, where more than 200,000 new cases were identified on Wednesday.
Health authorities are already sounding the alarm: the "tsunami" of cases due to the Omicron and Delta variants of Covid-19 will drive health systems to the brink of "collapse", warned the World Health Organization. health.
To fight against the meteoric rise in cases, the French government wants to transform the health pass into a vaccination pass and is starting to put in place restrictions (closing nightclubs, gauge for certain events, etc.), which should not however be too painful. for the economy.
"We will have to wait until January when we have better visibility at European level on the real impact of the Omicron variant and on what that means in terms of economic organization," said Mr. Dembik.
"Some sectors may be disrupted", which could cause the markets to react, he adds.
© 2021 AFP