CAC 40 Modestly Higher; LVMH Plunges As Sales Drop

(RTTNews) - After a flat start and a subsequent drop, French stocks are finding some support on Tuesday, although the mood remains cautious after luxury goods maker LVMH reported a decline in earnings.

U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks signaling a likely exemption on auto-related tariffs supports sentiment.

Trump is considering to temporarily halt the auto tariffs he had imposed earlier on the sector, in order to give time to car manufacturers to adjust their supply chains.

"I'm looking at something to help some of the car companies with it," Trump said while briefing the media at the Oval Office about auto tariffs. The U.S. President said that carmakers required time to reallocate their production from Canada, Mexico and other places, adding "And they need a little bit of time because they're going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time. So I'm talking about things like that."

The benchmark CAC 40 was up 36.60 points or 0.5% at 7,309.72 a few minutes ago. The index dropped to 7,239.73 earlier in the session.

Stellantis is gaining 4.15%. Saint Gobain and Publicis Groupe are up 3.2% and 3.1%, respectively.

Societe Generale, Schneider Electric, Legrand, Veolia Environment, Thales, Eurofins Scientific and Unibail Rodamco are up 2 to 3%.

Accor, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Renault, Safran, Michelin, AXA, Air Liquide, Dassault Systemes, STMicroElectronics, Bouygues, Edenred, Vinci and Essilor are also up with strong gains.

LVMH is plunging 7.5% after the company reported a 3% drop in first-quarter sales, as against expectations for a 2% increase. The company behind high-end labels including fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Dior, jewellery brand Bulgari and Hennessy cognac, reported sales for the three months to the end of March of 20.3 billion euros ($23.08 billion).

Pernod Ricard and Kering are down 2.7% and 2.4%, respectively. L'Oreal is declining 1.85%. Sanofi, Carrefour and Hermes International are down with moderate losses.

Data from Eurostat showed the industrial output in Eurozone grew at a faster pace in February driven by the rebound in production of capital and non-durable consumer goods.

Industrial output climbed 1.1% month-on-month in February, which was faster than the 0.6% growth logged in January and also better than economists' forecast of 0.1%.

On a yearly basis, industrial production advanced unexpectedly by 1.2%, in contrast to the 0.5% decline a month ago. Output was forecast to contract 0.8%.

Industrial production in the EU27 expanded 1% month-on-month in February, taking the annual growth to 0.6%.