CAC 40 Notably Higher; Societe Generale, Kering Among Top Gainers

(RTTNews) - The French market is up in positive territory on Thursday, advancing for a fourth straight session, as investors await the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement, and the U.S. consumer price inflation data, due later in the day.

Expectations of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week contribute as well to the positive mood in the market.

The ECB, scheduled to announce its monetary policy at 8.15 am ET., is widely expected to hold its key interest rates for the second straight session as inflation remains around the target and the economy is showing resilience to higher tariffs.

ECB Chief Christine Lagarde's press conference, and the central bank's macroeconomic projections are in focus.

The benchmark CAC 40 was up 65.50 or about 0.85% at 7,826.82 a few minutes ago.

Societe Generale is gaining about 2.5%. Airbus is up 2.3% and Kering is advancing nearly 2%. Kering announced on Wednesday that it will not fully buy Italian fashion brand Valentino until at least 2028, pushing back the execution of an expensive deal that has been weighing on the heavily indebted group.

Thales is up 1.8%, while BNP Paribas, AXA, Eurofins Scientific, Publicis Groupe, Accor and Stellantis are up 1 to 1.4%.

Sanofi is up by 1.1% after its SAR402663 earned fast track designation in the U.S. for neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Credit Agricole, Air Liquide, EssilorLuxottica, Orange, Dassault Systemes and Orange are up with moderate gains.

LVMH is declining by about 0.7%. L'Oreal, Michelin and STMicroElectronics are down with modest losses.