CAC 40 Up Nearly 2% As Stocks Rise On Middle East War De-escalation Hopes

(RTTNews) - France's equity benchmark CAC 40 rose sharply on Wednesday, extending gains to a third straight session, amid optimism about a de-escalation in the Middle East war.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would end the Iran war without reopening the Strait of Hormuz, especially as the conflict looked set to extend beyond his initial four-to-six-week timeline.

Trump said the U.S. could end its Iran military campaign within the next three weeks, claiming that Washington had already achieved its core objectives of hobbling Iran's nuclear ambitions and bringing a regime change in the country.

Meanwhile, Iran said no formal peace talks were underway but signaled a wiliness to stop fighting and end the ongoing war if it gets credible guarantees that the attacks will not happen again.

The CAC 40, which climbed to 8,006.47, a more than 2-month high, was up 151.00 points or 1.93% at 7,967.94 a few minutes ago.

Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole gained 5.4%, 4.3% and 3.6%, respectively.

Thales climbed 5.2%. ArcelorMittal advanced 4.7%, while Eurofins Scientific, Legrand, Stellantis, Renault and Unibail Rodamco gained 3%-4.5%.

Schneider Electric, Accor, Eiffage, Saint Gobain, Safran, STMicroelectronics, Kering, Michelin, Airbus, AXA, Bouygues, Vinci, Engie, Veolia Environment, Dassault Systemes, L'Orea, Bureau Veritas and Euronext moved up 1.2%-2.8%.

Among the losers, EssilorLuxottica slid 2.5% and TotalEnergies drifted down 1.7%. Pernod Ricard and Danone recorded modest losses.

The French manufacturing sector stagnated in March after production declined following back-to-back months of growth and new orders declined sharply as clients postponed or cancelled their orders citing uncertainty from the Iran war. The final factory PMI edged down to 50.0 from 50.1 in February. The flash score was 50.2.

The euro area manufacturing sector expanded at the fastest pace since mid-2022 in March, driven by increases in both production and new orders but the war in the Middle East disrupted global logistics and intensified price pressures.

The final manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index climbed to a 45-month high of 51.6 in March from 50.8 in February and remained moderately above the flash estimate of 51.4.

The euro area unemployment rate rose slightly in February, data from Eurostat showed. The unemployment rate rose to 6.2% from 6.1% in January. In the same period last year, the jobless rate was 6.3%. Economists had forecast the rate to remain at 6.1% in February.

In the EU, the unemployment rate was stable at 5.9% in February. Meanwhile, the youth unemployment rate rose slightly to 15.3% from 15.2%t a month ago.