EUROPE MARKETS: French Stocks Rise Ahead Of European Peers Despite Election Worries
April 20 2017 - 5:32AM
Dow Jones News
By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
Publicis, Pernod lead advance on CAC after earnings releases
French stocks rose Thursday, performing better than broader
European equities, as gains for Publicis Groupe SA and Pernod
Ricard SA helped relieve pressure from concerns over the outcome of
Sunday's presidential election vote.
In Paris, the CAC 40 moved up 0.5% to 5,029.68. That was better
than the Stoxx Europe 600 , which trudged up 0.1% and has been
slipping between small gains and losses. The pan-European index was
held back by losses in the commodity sector, but consumer goods and
financial shares were rising.
Investors were sifting through a new batch of earnings reports
Thursday. Publicis (PUB.FR) was among the top share-price
performers on the back of its financial results. Shares popped up
2.4%, on track for their best session since December, after the
advertising heavyweight posted a smaller-than-expected decline in
first-quarter sales
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/publicis-dragged-down-by-loss-of-us-accounts-2017-04-20-14854420).
At the same time, shares of French spirits group Pernod Ricard
(RI.FR) climbed 1.6%. The producer of Absolut vodka and Martell
cognac posted a 1% rise in third-quarter underlying sales.
A win for the CAC 40 on Thursday would be its second in a row,
coming after five straight sessions of losses.
French stocks have been under pressure on worries about the
outcome of Sunday's first round of voting in the country's
presidential election. Recent polling suggests a tight contest
between the four main candidates, raising worries that the final
two contenders going through to the second round of voting could be
two euroskeptics: far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon and
far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
"[With] four candidates polling around 20%, there is every
reason for caution," said Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX
Capital, in a note.
"We're looking at contingency plans in the event of a Le
Pen-Melenchon runoff as this would spark a big selloff in the euro
and French government bonds, as well as bank stocks," he wrote.
Read: Here's how France's hotly contested election could spark
market turmoil
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-frances-hotly-contested-election-could-spark-market-turmoil-2017-04-19)
Stock movers: ABB Ltd. (ABBN.EB) added 1.8% after the
Swiss-based engineering and power grid company said net income rose
on divestment of the company's high-voltage cable business.
However, its first-quarter revenue fell slightly to $7.85 billion
from a year ago.
Unilever (ULVR.LN) (ULVR.LN) shares picked up 1.1% after the
consumer-product giant reported a rise in underlying sales for the
first quarter
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/unilever-sales-rise-but-lag-in-europe-us-2017-04-20).
Nestlé SA] (NESN.EB) said first-quarter revenue was largely flat
from a year earlier, but shares traded higher by 0.6%
Indexes: In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 was down fractionally at
12,011.12, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 fell 0.2% to 7,102.43.
Read:Why the snap U.K. election is a 'game-changer' for the
pound
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-the-pound-surged-to-10-week-high-after-may-called-snap-uk-election-2017-04-18)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 20, 2017 05:17 ET (09:17 GMT)
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