The Paris Stock Exchange up slightly, helped by the banks

The Paris Stock Exchange remained above 7,000 points on Friday, helped by financial stocks after interventions on both sides of the Atlantic to calm concerns about the banking system, but also by the strategy of the European Central Bank .

Around 11:05 a.m., the flagship CAC 40 index gained 0.31% to 7,047.44 points the day after a rebound of more than 2%. The Parisian rating was however heading towards a weekly loss of more than 3%.

After much scare about the banking system, “the week should end on a positive note, with widespread increases in risky assets, following the management of problems in the United States by local authorities and the timely intervention of the Swiss Central Bank,” said Pierre Veyret, an analyst at ActivTrades.

Eleven major US banks pledged on Thursday to rescue First Republic, the 14th largest bank in the United States by the size of its assets, allaying market fears of another bank failure after those of Silicon Valley Ban (SVB ), Signature Bank and Silvergate last week.

As for Credit Suisse, it has received support from the Swiss central bank to strengthen its liquidity by borrowing in the short term up to 50 billion Swiss francs (50.7 billion euros).

“Investors also took note of the latest speech by ECB President Christine Lagarde, who yesterday announced a 50 basis point rate hike, while reaffirming that European banks remained resilient and that monetary tightening would not constitute not a threat to the economy of the euro zone as a whole (…)”, adds Mr. Veyret.

The failure of several regional US banks last week followed by the setbacks at Credit Suisse this week have generated great concern and revived the nightmare of the 2008 global financial crisis, investors fearing repercussions on the entire banking system.

Supporting banks

Societe Generale shares gained 2.47% to 21.76 euros, benefiting from an increase in recommendation by HSBC to “buy” against “keep”, according to the financial information agency Bloomberg. BNP Paribas arrogated 0.78% to 53.12 euros, Axa 0.67% to 27.03 euros and Credit Agricole 0.14% to 10.24 euros.

Sanofi lowers the price of its insulin in the United States

The pharmaceutical giant (+0.50% to 90.68 euros) will reduce the list price of its Lantus insulin in the United States by 78% from January 2024, as part of a series of measures to reduce the price. diabetes medications.