(RTTNews) - French stocks are gaining some ground in positive territory on Thursday, coming back fairly strongly after recent losses. Optimism over a potential EU - US trade deal, and some encouraging earnings news contribute to the firm undertone in the market.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 69.95 points or 0.91% at 7,792.04 a few minutes ago.
Legrand is rising nearly 8.5% thanks to upbeat first-half results. The company has also raised its full-year sales growth forecast to 10-12%, from 6-10% guidance it had given earlier.
Schneider Electric is gaining 6% on reports that the company is in talks to acquire the remaining 35% stake in its Indian subsidiary.
STMicroElectronics is up 3.3% and Saint Gobain is gaining 2.5%. Stellantis and Safran are up 2.1% and 1.7%, respectively.
Dassault Systemes, Bouygues, Vinci, Accor, Credit Agricole, Edenred, Air Liquide, L'orea, Capgemini, Sanofi, Michelin and ArcelorMittal are up 0.5 to 1.3%.
Publicis Groupe is down 2.25%. Hermes International, Veolia Environment, TotalEnergies, Renault and Kering are down 0.5 to 0.75%.
In economic news, Euro area inflation rose slightly to the European Central Bank's 2% target in June, as initially estimated, final data from Eurostat showed.
Annual inflation moved up to 2% in June from 1.9% in May. The rate came in line with the estimate published on July 1.
Core inflation that excludes prices of energy and food held steady at 2.3%, as estimated.
At 0.3%, the monthly growth in the harmonized index of consumer prices matched the flash estimate.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
