BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks are moving up sharply Wednesday morning on hectic buying across the board amid rising optimism about increased spending on defense and infrastructure in European countries.
Investors are reacting positively to news about German leaders agreeing to create 500 billion euros infrastructure spending.
Comments from U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that President Donald Trump will 'probably' announce a deal to reduce tariffs on Canada and Mexico also contribute to the positive sentiment in the market.
In addition to shares from defense and infrastructure sector, several stocks from banking, metal and jewellery sectors are also up with strong gains.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 176.37 points or 2.19% at 8,224.29 a few minutes ago.
ArcelorMittal is rising nearly 10% after the European Union announced an action plan to boost Europe's steel sector and protect it from potential U.S. tariffs.
Saint-Gobain is gaining 8.5%, while STMicroElectronics, Stellantis, Thales, Vinci, Legrand, Societe Generale, Schneider Electric, BNP Paribas, Capgemini, Edenred and Renault are up 4 to 7%.
Accor, Bouygues, Eurofins Scientific, Safran, Kering, Teleperformance, Michelin, Publicis Groupe, Airbus Group, Dassault Systemes, Credit Agricole, Veolia, AXA, Pernod Ricard and Air Liquide are advancing 2 to 4%.
Dassault Aviation SA shares are up 3.5%. The maker of military aircraft and business jets posted net income of 923.82 million euros or 11.78 euros per share in full-year 2024, up from 693.40 million euros or 8.57 euros per share last year.
The order intakes for full-year 2024 was 10.87 billion euros, a jump from the 8.25 billion euros order intakes a year ago.
Danone, Unibai Rodamco, Orange, Essilor, Engie and Sanofi are down 0.4 to 1.5%.
On the economic front, France's industrial production declined unexpectedly in January as output contracted across manufacturing, mining and construction sectors, data released by the statistical office INSEE showed.
Industrial production decreased 0.6% on a monthly basis in January, confounding expectations for an increase of 0.6%. This followed a 0.5% fall in December.
Manufacturing output was down 0.7% month-on-month but this was slower than the 1% decline in December.
The HCOB France Composite PMI for February 2025 was revised up to 45.1, from the flash estimate of 44.5, but below January's 47.6. The latest reading indicated the sixth straight month of contraction in the country's private sector and at a solid pace.
The HCOB France Services PMI fell to 45.3 in February 2025 from 48.2 in the previous month.
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