The flagship CAC 40 index ended at 7,322.39 points, returning above its level of March 9, before the banking shock that had pushed the index below 6,900 points.
The banking crisis born of the bankruptcy of the American institution Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) now seems very far in the minds of investors. Even the month of March came out positive (+0.75%).
Since the beginning of the week, it has posted an increase of 3.59%, its best weekly performance since early January.
And over the last three months, the Parisian rating has climbed 13.11%, its best quarter since the end of 2020.
Euro zone annual inflation fell in March for the fifth consecutive month, to 6.9% year-on-year, after 8.5% in February, thanks to a lull in energy prices, according to Eurostat. Analysts expected 7.1%.
Adjusted for volatile energy and food prices, so-called "core" inflation rose again to 5.7% in February.
In France, inflation is also slowing: +5.6% over one year in March according to INSEE, against 6.3% in February.
"Across Europe, headline inflation is falling, which was expected simply because energy prices have fallen compared to last year," said Charlotte de Montpellier, an economist at ING France.
However, it notes that "core inflation is not decreasing, this means that the European Central Bank (ECB) has not finished raising rates, but it was also expected."
The impacts of high rates and inflation are increasingly being felt: "consumption is down in France, in Germany too, which shows that consumption is impacted by inflation and that we are in a phase of slowdown in the economy in general," adds Ms. de Montpellier.
Big acquisition for Sartorius Stedim
The biotech Sartorius Stedim announced Friday just before the opening of the stock market the purchase for nearly 2.4 billion euros of the French technology provider for cell and gene therapies Polyplus. The group's shares, which achieved a turnover of about 3.5 billion euros in 2022, fell 8.62% to 282 euros.
© 2023 AFP