CAC 40 Modestly Lower In Cautious Trade

(RTTNews) - French stocks are showing weakness on Friday, losing ground for the third consecutive session, amid rising concerns about inflation due to the conflict in the Middle East.

Data showing an increase in France's consumer price inflation, and chances of a rate hike by the European Central Bank in the foreseeable future weigh on sentiment.

France's benchmark CAC 40 dropped to a low of 7,872.73 earlier in the session, was down 27.29 points or 0.34% at 7,957.15 a few minutes past noon.

ArcelorMittal is down 2.5% and Kering is declining by about 2.3%, while L'Oreal, Societe Generale, LVMH, Eurofins Scientific and EssilorLuxottica are down 1.7%-2%.

Renault is down 1.6%, while Accor, Stellantis, Schneider Electric, Credit Agricole and Airbus are lower by 1%-1.4%.

Hermes Internationa, BNP Paribas, Saint-Gobain, Pernod Ricard, Safran, Eiffage, Legrand and Michelin are also down in negative territory.

Among the gainers, TotalEnergies is rising more than 2% and Publicis Groupe is moving up 1.8%. Engie, Danone, Orange, Dassault Systemes and Euronext are up 0.5%-1.1%.

Shares of media giant Vivendi are down nearly 3% despite the company reporting a significant swing to profitability in the second half of 2025. On Thursday, the company reported earnings attributed to shareholders of 20 million euros or 0.02 euros per share for the full year 2025, compared to a loss of 6,004 million euros or 5.96 euros per share for the full year of 2024.

In 2025, Vivendi's revenues were 307 million euros, compared to 297 million euros in 2024, an increase of 3.5%. At constant currency and perimeter, Vivendi's revenues increased by 4.3% compared to 2024. This increase reflects the good performance of Gameloft, which contributed €303 million to revenues.

In economic news, final data from the statistical office INSEE showed showed France's consumer price inflation rose slightly less than estimated in February, logging an annual growth of 0.9%, revised down from earlier estimate of 1%. Prices had increased 0.3% in January and 0.8% in December.

The increase in inflation was mainly due to a less pronounced decline in prices of energy and manufactured goods. Energy prices slid 2.9% after a 7.6% drop, driven by a base effect on electricity prices which had fallen sharply in February 2025.

Meanwhile, food price inflation accelerated to 2% from 1.9%.

EU harmonized inflation advanced to 1.1% from 0.4% in January. The rate matched the flash estimate. Core inflation rose to 0.9% in February from 0.7% in January.

The consumer price index gained 0.6% from a month ago, reversing a 0.3% drop in January. The initially estimated monthly inflation was 0.7%.