France Stock Market Index (FR40)

The CAC 40 closed 28 points or 0.5% higher at 6,386 on Friday, extending gains to late 2000 levels, and advanced 1.8% from last week, on a strong earnings season. Credit Agricole net profit surged 64% to €1.05 billion during the first quarter, largely surpassing expectations of €729 million, underpinned by trading activities and a reduction in cost of risk. Also, French investment bank Natixis, which reported Thursday after the bell a net profit of €255 million in Q1, rebounding from a €204 million net loss in the previous year, as cost of risk decreased by more than half to €92 million. Finally, traders also digested earnings from Casino Group, which reported a 6.4% drop in Q1 sales and announced it was considering a stock market listing for its renewable energy subsidiary GreenYellow to further reduce debt levels. Historically, the France CAC 40 Stock Market Index reached an all time high of 6944.77 in September of 2000. The CAC 40 Index is a benchmark French stock market index. It tracks the performance of 40 companies selected among the top 100 market capitalization and the most active listed equities traded on the NYSE Euronext Paris. The CAC 40 Index is free floating, modified capitalization-weighted index. The Index has a base value of 100 as of December 31, 1987.