The CAC 40 index lost 2.39% to 5,886.24 points.

The day before, it had taken up 1.35%, above 6,000 points after six sessions of decline, reassured by the statements of the European Central Bank on borrowing conditions in the euro zone.

Announced on the rise before the opening on Thursday, the Parisian market started down slightly and then continued to widen its losses.

“The session was complicated and essentially focused on the subject of rates with a very negative message from the American Central Bank for economic growth”, recalls Florian Allain, manager at Mandarine Gestion, interviewed by AFP.

The Fed announced on Wednesday the raising of its key rates by 0.75 percentage points, the strongest monetary tightening since 1994 and not the last, most of the governors of the institution aiming for a range of 3.25 to 3 .50% by the end of the year.

"The market is happy that the central banks are working on the subject of inflation but the reality is that the effects will be strong and that a recession is no longer an unlikely scenario", adds the analyst, forecasting a drop in consumption and negative consequences on employment.

"But all is not black," he nuances.

On the bond market, although the interest rates of the debts of European countries continued to climb on Thursday, the tension eased slightly compared to the beginning of the week, in particular on the Italian debt, after an emergency meeting from the European Central Bank on Wednesday.

The ECB instructed its teams to "accelerate" the design of a new "anti-fragmentation" instrument to combat excessive spread of rates between countries in the North and countries in the South of the euro zone and promised to apply " some flexibility in the reinvestment" of the bonds held under its emergency program launched during the pandemic (PEPP).

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner also said on Thursday that there was "no reason to worry about interest rate differentials in Europe".

On the value side, only Orange ended up in the green for the CAC 40, while a handful of stocks came out of the water on the SBF 120.

Engie rationed

The French energy group Engie said Thursday that it had noted a reduction in Russian gas deliveries, while ensuring that this had no effect on the supply of its customers.

The stock reacted strongly and signed the biggest drop in the index (-7.29%), amid widespread fears over European supplies of Russian gas after delivery cuts and a pithy announcement from the head of Gazprom : "our product, our rules".

Air Liquide (-3.77%), TotalEnergies (-2.91%) and Neoen (1.75%) also suffered.

Veolia gets rid of waste from Suez

Veolia has announced that it will sell the waste activities in the United Kingdom of Suez, a group that it has largely absorbed, "a radical decision" taken after the British competition authority announced in mid-May of his "concerns".

Its title lost 3.58% to 23.15 euros.

© 2022 AFP