CAC 40 Gains Modest Ground In Positive Territory

(RTTNews) - French stocks turned in a mixed performance Friday morning with investors largely staying wary of making significant moves while assessing the situation in the Middle East and reacting to news about Hezbollah rejecting a new ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Tensions between Israel and Hzbollah rose after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) eliminated Hezbollah's engineering unit commander Abed Harb.

Investors also awaited the crucial U.S. jobs data due later in the day.

The CAC 40, which drifted down to 8,236.79, was up 29.45 points or 0.26% at 8,273.74 a few minutes past noon.

Pernod Ricard, Euronext, Hermes International and Publicis Groupe gained 2.2%-2.5%.

L'Oreal, Saint-Gobain, EssilorLuxottica, LVMH, Carrefour, Bouygues, Capgemini, Dassault Systemes, Eurofins Scientific, Airbus, Sanofi, Kering, Credit Agricole and Michelin moved up 1%-2%.

STMicroelectronics tumbled 4.1%. ArcelorMittal dropped 2.7% and Schneider Electric shed 2.1%, while Legrand lost 1.4%. Safran drifted down by about 0.4%.

Data from INSEE showed industrial production in France edged up by 0.1% month-on-month in April, defying market expectations of a 0.2% fall but slowing from an upwardly revised 1.4% rise in the previous month.

On a yearly basis, industrial production accelerated to 2.8% from an upwardly revised 1.3% in March.

France's trade deficit narrowed to Euro 5.6 billion in April from Euro 6.4 billion in March, and below the expected Euro 6.5 billion shortfall. Exports rose 3.1% month-on-month to Euro 54.6 billion, while imports increased at a softer 1.5% to Euro 60.2 billion.