(RTTNews) - France's CAC 40 climbed higher on Friday, extending gains to a third straight session, amid rising hopes the Federal Reserve will lower interest rate by 25 basis points next week.
The CAC 40 was up 31.73 points or 0.4% at 8,153.76 a few minutes past noon.
Edenred, up 2.2%, was the top gainer in the CAC 40 index. Saint Gobain gained a little over 2%, while Stellantis and STMicroElectronics moved up 1.86% and 1.8%, respectively.
Capgemini, EssilorLuxottica, Sanofi, Airbus, Carrefour, Vinci and Pernod Ricard gained 1 to 1.5%. Hermes International, BNP Paribas and Kering moved up nearly 1%.
Credit Agricole, Accor, Publicis Groupe, Euronext, Schneider Electric and Danone also posted notable gains.
Orange drifted lower by 1.7%. LVMH and Total Energies lost 1.2% and 1%, respectively. Unibail Rodamco and Societe Generale were modestly lower at noon.
Revised data from Eurostat showed the euro area economy logged a faster-than-estimated growth in the third quarter, underpinned by government spending and investment.
Gross domestic product grew 0.3% sequentially compared to a marginal growth of 0.1% in second quarter. The third quarter growth was revised up from 0.2%.
On a yearly basis, GDP growth was confirmed at 1.4%, which was slower than the prior quarter's 1.6% expansion.
Industrial production in France increased 0.2% month-on-month in October, easing from a downwardly revised a 0.7% gain in September but defying market expectations of a 0.3% fall, data from INSEE showed.
Meanwhile, France's trade deficit narrowed sharply to €3.9 billion in October 2025 from €6.4 billion in September, well below expectations of €6.8 billion and marking the smallest gap since December 2024. Exports slipped 0.5% month-on-month to €51.7 billion, while imports declined at a faster 4.6% to a four-year low of €55.6 billion.
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