CAC 40 Rises Sharply As Earnings, U.S.-Iran Peace Deal Hopes Lift Sentiment

(RTTNews) - French stocks climbed higher on Wednesday, lifted by some strong earnings updates, and hopes of a U.S.-Iran peace deal following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of a temporary suspension of "Project Freedom" in order to resume negotiations with Iran.

The CAC 40, which climbed to 8,280.71 earlier this morning, was up 191.36 points or 2.37% at 8,253.67 a few minutes ago.

ArcelorMittal soared nearly 8.5%. Safran jumped 6.5% and Stellantis moved up 6.3%. Societe Generale, Kering, BNP Paribas and Saint Gobain gained 5%-6%.

AXA gained 4.3%. The insurance giant reported first-quarter gross written premiums and other revenues of 38.0 billion euros, up 3% from 37.0 billion euros in the prior-year period, driven by growth across Life & Health and Property & Casualty segments. On a comparable basis, premiums and other revenues rose 6%.

Veolia Environnement gained 1.1%. The company reported first quarter current EBIT of 971 million euros, up 7.2% from last year. EBITDA was 1.77 billion euros, an organic growth of 5.1%. Revenue was 11.43 billion euros, up 1.0% on a like-for-like basis, and by 2.1% excluding the impact of energy prices.

Renault, Credit Agricole, Hermes Interational, Bouygues, Eiffage, LVMH and Airbus moved up 4%-5%. EssilorLuxottica, Vinci, Michelin, Schneider Electric, Legrand, Eurofins Scientific, Dassault Systemes, L'Oreal and Unibail Rodmco also posted strong gains.

TotalEnergies fell 3%. Euronext, Orange and Sanofi drifted modestly lower.

In economic news, the S&P Global France Composite PMI was unrevised at 47.6 in April 2026, down from 48.8 in March, indicating a fourth consecutive month of contraction in France's private sector and the sharpest downturn since February 2025.

The S&P Global France Services PMI fell to 46.5 in April 2026 from 48.8 in March, confirming preliminary estimates. This marked the steepest contraction since February 2025,

Industrial production in France rose 1% month-on-month in March 2026, beating market expectations of a 0.5% increase and rebounding from an upwardly revised 0.9% fall in the previous month.

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