CAC 40 Modestly Higher; BNP Paribas Rises On Strong Earnings

(RTTNews) - French stocks are turning in a mixed performance on Thursday with investors reacting to earnings and economic updates, and looking ahead to the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement.

The benchmark CAC 40, which climbed to 8,312.68 earlier in the session, was up 23.33 points or 0.28% at 8,285.49 a little while ago.

BNP Paribas climbed 3.75% on strong results. The bank reported fourth quarter net income of 2.97 billion euros, up 28%, compared to 2.32 billion euros, a year ago. Operating income was 3.97 billion euros compared to 3.33 billion euros, an increase of 19.3%.

Full year 2025 operating income was 16.30 billion euros, an increase of 5.6% from last year. EPS was 10.29 euros, up 7.5%. Revenues were 51.22 billion euros, up 4.9%.

Legrand gained nearly 3%, while Euronext and ArcelorMittal moved up 2.5% and 2.35%, respectively.

Publicis Groupe gained 1.75%, Schneider Electric and STMicroElectronics gained 1.5% each, and Bureau Veritas climbed 1.3%, while Dassault Systemes and Safran advanced by 1.2% and 1.1%, respectively.

Stellantis dropped 2.7%, and Orange drifted down 2%. Engie, Kering, Michelin, Renault, Thales, Sanofi and Air Liquide shed 1.2%-1.6%.

Data from INSEE showed France's industrial production declined unexpectedly in December, dropping by 0.7% on a monthly basis, in contrast to the 0.1% increase in November. Production was forecast to grow 0.2% in December. Similarly, manufacturing output declined 0.8% after a 0.5% rise.

The HCOB Construction PMI in France came in at 43.5 in January 2026, broadly unchanged from December and November, data from S&P Global showed.

A report from Eurostat said Eurozone retail sales declined more than expected in December due to the fall in non-food product turnover. Retail sales fell 0.5% month-on-month in December, marking the first fall in four months, Eurostat said. The decline followed November's 0.1% rise. Sales were forecast to drop 0.2%.

On a yearly basis, retail sales growth eased more-than-expected to 1.3% in December from 2.4% in November. The expected pace of increase was 1.6%.

In the EU27, retail sales dropped 0.5 percent from November but increased 1.7 percent from the previous year.