The flagship CAC 40 index regained 140.01 points to 7,025.72 points. The day before, it had its worst session in a year, with a decline of 3.58%.
The balance sheet of the week is still largely negative, with a decline of 2.70% of the CAC 40.
Attention was still focused on banks after Credit Suisse's setbacks on Wednesday. The sector limited the damage in Paris, while remaining behind other values.
Credit Suisse rallied on Thursday helped by the Swiss central bank -- which insisted there was no risk of contagion between the difficulties of some banks in the United States and the Swiss financial market -- and by the assumption of its purchase.
The main player of the day, the European Central Bank was not afraid of the risk of a new banking crisis and decided in favour of a further rate hike of half a percentage point to fight inflation, judging that banks in the euro zone were solid and "resilient".
The guardians of the euro are however cautious about the continuation of monetary tightening, anticipating lower inflation for 2023 and 2024 compared to their December vision.
The lack of commitment on the path of rates is "a sensible decision, given the immense uncertainty and the state of the banking sector," according to Craig Erlam, analyst at Oanda.
In the bond market, yields have only risen slightly after their sharp decline over the past week. The interest rate for the French 10-year bond ended at 2.82%, while it was well above 3% at the beginning of the month.
Luxury carries the CAC
Luxury, a sector with a strong valuation and that investors prefer when rates are low, jumped at the end of the session.
Hermès took 4.69% to 1,765.00 euros, even rising on the week while LVMH gained 3.49% to 801.70 euros and Kering 2.52% to 552.90 euros. In cosmetics, L'Oréal gained 3.38% to 383.70 euros.
This effect also benefited technology stocks: Dassault Systèmes jumped 4.20% to 38.09 euros and Capgemini 2.47% to 169.89 euros.
A little better for banks
The banking sector recovered somewhat after the heavy losses of the previous day, but ended in mixed order. BNP Paribas recovered 1.31% to 52.71 euros, Credit Agricole 0.02% to 10.22 euros, but Societe Generale lost 1.21% to 21.24 euros.
© 2023 AFP