The flagship CAC 40 index dropped 180.63 points to 6,207.20 points as investors expected a more flexible tone from the ECB, geopolitical uncertainties and inflation worries.

"It seems obvious that the inflation surplus linked to the war in Ukraine has caused some cold sweats within the Board of Governors," said Christopher Dembik, director of macroeconomic research at Saxo Bank.

While investors expected a softening of monetary rhetoric, the central bank decided on Thursday to accelerate the gradual withdrawal of its debt buybacks in the face of soaring inflation, while allowing time to act. on the rates.

Another surprise: the ECB no longer asserts, contrary to what it has done so far, that a stop to these debt purchases will be automatically followed by a rise in key rates, which would be the first since 2011.

The rise could, according to ECB President Christine Lagarde, both come "the following week" and "months later" depending on economic data.

"The path to normalization is therefore now open, but the institution is not commenting on any timetable", observes Ronan Blanc, analyst manager at Financière Arbevel, adding that the market "expected a little more readability in a particularly difficult context. anxiety inducing".

The exercise was delicate, as the war in Ukraine gave a new impetus to inflation and prompted the central bank to revise its growth expectations downwards to 3.7% for 2022, against 4.2% previously.

ECB experts have revised inflation forecasts for this year sharply upwards, to 5.1% from 3.2%, then to 2.1% in 2023 and 1.9% in 2024.

"In this context, interest rates continued to rise, returning to pre-war levels," notes Nicolas Forest, head of bond management at Candriam.

The latter considers that “the pressure will therefore be great for monetary normalization if the inflation figures continue to be revised upwards, in particular for 2023 and 2024”.

SMCP suspends deliveries to Russia

The turnover of SMCP (Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot, De Fursac) returned to above one billion euros in 2021 and the clothing group returned to profit.

The title of the group, which announced to suspend its deliveries in Russia, climbed 7.75% to 6.68 euros.

Record profits for Eurazeo and Tikehau

The investment company Eurazeo and the management company Tikehau Capital, which announced a "record" net profit in 2021, soared respectively by 5.51% to 68.95 euros and by 12.14% to 23.55. euros.

© 2022 AFP