The star CAC 40 index lost 77.98 points to 6,581.43 points.

The day before, it had advanced by 1.17%.

After opening in the green, the Parisian rating quickly tipped into the red and accentuated its decline during the afternoon, in the opposite direction to oil prices.

The latter "guide the direction of the market", confirms Alexandre Neuvy, director of private management at Amplegest, also noting that oil prices "are led by Russian or Ukrainian declarations" on the war, which started almost a year ago. month.

At the start of the afternoon, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will no longer accept payments in dollars or euros for gas deliveries "to hostile countries", in particular those of the European Union, giving the authorities a week Russians to work out the new ruble system.

The price of gas on the European benchmark market took more than 18% and oil prices more than 5%, with the barrel of Brent above 120 dollars a barrel at the Paris close.

The announcement comes on the eve of NATO, G7 and European Union summits in Brussels, the aim of which is to announce "new sanctions against Russia" and to strengthen existing ones, a warned Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor to the US President.

For the moment, Russian hydrocarbons have largely escaped Western sanctions against Russia, but the possibility is no longer ruled out by the European Union.

TotalEnergies shuts down Russian oil

TotalEnergies has announced its decision to stop all purchases of Russian oil or petroleum products, "at the latest by the end of 2022".

Its CEO Patrick Pouyanné assured Wednesday that he could not do without Russian gas without which part of European economic activity "would stop".

The action advanced 0.77% to 46.34 euros, benefiting from the jump in oil.

Par ailleurs, TotalEnergies a indiqué avoir engagé "sans délai une action en diffamation" à l'encontre du candidat écologiste à la présidentielle Yannick Jadot, qui a accusé le groupe de "complicité de crimes de guerre" pour le maintien de ses activités en Russie.

Rachat d'actions pour Air Liquide

Air Liquide (+2,31% à 154,22 euros) a surnagé dans l'indice CAC 40 après l'annonce d'un plan de rachat d'actions pour 0,25% du capital du groupe.

Le luxe a la peine

Comme dans tout l'Europe, le secteur de luxe a souffert à Paris, où il est un poids lourd de la cote. Kering a notamment perdu 2,66% à 580,80 euros, LVMH 3,04% à 624,30 euros et Hermès 1,23% à 1.206 euros.

On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs bank analysts lowered growth forecasts for the sector according to the financial agency Bloomberg, due in particular to the increase in Covid-19 cases in China, one of their main markets.

© 2022 AFP