The CAC 40 ended yesterday slightly down. The automotive world was in the red, while luxury goods, buoyed by the results of L’Oréal, contained the market decline.
The Paris stock market is resisting. After a sharp decline during the session, the CAC 40 finished with a limited decline of 0.14%.
In terms of stocks, two contradictory trends clashed. On the one hand, the automotive sector: despite its satisfactory sales in the first quarter, Renault fell by 8% and Stellantis by 5%. These stocks have been disadvantaged by the fear of a price “war” on electric vehicles.
“Renault has published good figures and hold reassuring words, the market retains the aggressive price cuts of Tesla and relegates to the second plan the sales of the group and the reassuring dynamics on the Megane E-Tech “, explains Michael Foundoukidis, analyst for the financial group, Oddo BHF.
For Tesla, the figures are not up. The U.S. car manufacturer has published its first quarter results, with a plunge in its operating margin, caused by repeated price cuts, combined with rising costs. On Wall Street, Tesla’s share price fell by 8.6%.
Luxury saves the day
On the other hand, luxury goods pulled up the CAC 40, largely thanks to the good figures of L’Oréal (+ 2%). The group achieved growth almost twice as high as expected in the first quarter (13% on a like-for-like basis to 10.38 billion euros), thanks to good performance in Europe and North America.
In North Asia, L’Oréal grew by only 2% on a like-for-like basis due to significant destocking in China in the first month of the year. But the world leader in cosmetics has resumed double digit growth in February and March in the country.
Among the luxury giants, Hermès gained 2%, LVMH 1.3% and Kering 0.8%. LVMH, the world’s number 1 luxury goods company reported a much stronger than expected quarterly performance last week. It has exceeded 440 billion euros in capitalization. In the first three months of 2023, it achieved sales of 21 billion euros, with organic growth of 17%. The group also announced yesterday at a general meeting the payment of a dividend of 12 euros per share.
In the absence of the automobile industry, the luxury giants are boosting the CAC 40. A very good quarter, which could be the prelude to another record year for the French flagships of the sector.
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