The CAC 40 index took 18.72 points to 6,572.54 points around 10:40 a.m.

The Parisian place gained 1.26% last week, ending at 6,553.86 points on Friday.

The particularly low trading volume experienced by the Paris market on Monday is likely to lead to high price volatility.

After a hesitation that briefly put it back in the red, the Paris Stock Exchange made a good heart against bad luck and rose again despite the surprise drop in Chinese consumption and industrial production in July.

The main indicator of household spending, retail sales in China rose 2.7% year on year, compared to 3.1% in June.

For its part, industrial production increased by 3.8% over one year, but this rate is lower than that of June (3.9%) and analysts' forecasts (+4.6%).

In response, the Chinese central bank lowered several of its key rates to support the economy.

"The (investor's) focus this week is on consumers in China, the US and the UK, and there appears to be little cause for celebration," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

"Poor Chinese data heightens global recession fears," added Ipek Ozkardeskaya of SwissQuote.

The uptrend is driven by hopes of a slowdown in interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) born last week of encouraging indicators on the health of the US economy, including a decline in inflation.

In Europe, on the other hand, "the worst can yet come" in terms of inflation, according to Mr. Hewson, while "gas prices remain high due to concerns about possible future interruptions in deliveries from Russia" .

The Dutch TTF, the benchmark for natural gas in Europe, took 2.23% to 210,700 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) around 10:30 a.m.

It has jumped almost 190% since the start of the year, a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Eurofins Scientific grows

The French giant of analysis laboratories has announced the signing of an agreement to become the majority shareholder of the Japanese research and analysis center QSAI, whose activity concerns the detection of pesticides and food tests.

The title of the world number one food test took 2.06% around 10:30 a.m.

Ipsen expands

The third French pharmaceutical laboratory announced on Friday that it had concluded the acquisition of Epizyme, which specializes in cancer treatment drugs.

It took 2.41% to 97.65 euros.

© 2022 AFP