CAC Modestly Lower On Weak Global Cues; Engie Rises On Upbeat Earnings

(RTTNews) - The French stock market is down in negative territory Thursday morning as fresh tariff threats by U.S. President Donald Trump render the mood bearish. The market is also digesting a slew of corporate earnings updates.

The U.S. President announced on Wednesday that he would impose a 25% tariff on European cars and other goods imported into America.

The benchmark CAC 40, which dropped to 8,075.27 in early trades, was down 20.69 points or 0.25% at 8,123.23.

Publicis Groupe is down more than 3% and Stellantis is declining nearly 3%. Teleperformance is declining 2.2%, while Capgemini, Eurofins Scientific, Accor, Dassault Systemes, Danone, Unibail Rodamco, Pernod Rircard and Airbus Group are lower by 0.8 to 2%.

AXA is down by about 1.2%. The company reported that fiscal 2024 net income increased by 11% to 7.9 billion euros. Underlying earnings increased by 7% to 8.1 billion euros. Underlying earnings per share increased by 8% to 3.59 euros. Gross written premiums & other revenues were at 110 billion euros, up 8%.

Engie is rising more than 6% after the energy provider reported significantly higher profit in fiscal 2024, despite weak revenues, and proposed a dividend. Further, the firm upgraded outlook for fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026, and said it sees growth in fiscal 2027.

For fiscal 2024, net income Group share surged 85.9% to 4.11 billion euros from last year's 2.21 billion euros. Earnings per share climbed to 1.65 euros from 0.88 euro a year ago.

Veolia Environnement is gaining nearly 1%. The company announced that its bottomline for fiscal 2024 came in at EUR1.098 billion, or EUR1.40 per share, compared with EUR937 million, or EUR1.19 per share, last year. The company's revenue for the period fell 1.5% to EUR44.692 billion from EUR45.351 billion last year.