CAC 40 Moderately Lower As Market Awaits ECB Policy Announcement

(RTTNews) - French stocks are exhibiting weakness on Thursday as investors largely refrain from making significant moves ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement.

Uncertainty surrounding U.S. trade policy and a long weekend ahead also contribute to the cautious mood in the market.

The benchmark CAC 40, moving in a narrow range, was down 38.47 points or 0.52% at 7,291.50 a few minutes ago.

Saint Gobain is declining 2.7%. Airbus, Bureau Veritas, Teleperformance, Vinci, Eurofins Scientific, Accor, Safran, Thales and Carrefour are down 1 to 1.7%.

Legrand, BNP Paribas, ArcelorMittal, Dassault Systemes, Sanofi and Bouygues are also notably lower.

L'Oreal is gaining about 0.7%. Edenred, LVMH, Schneider Electric and Unibail Rodamco are modestly higher.

Hermes International is down 0.8%. The luxury fashion house reported a rise in revenue for the first quarter, helped by growth in all the geographical areas. For the three-month period, the company posted revenue of 4.129 billion euros, higher than 3.805 billion euros registered for the same period last year.

Pernod Ricard is down marginally. The company reported a decline in sales for the third quarter and a nine-month period. For the third quarter, the Group sales declined by 3% to 2.278 billion euros. For the nine-month period, sales stood at 8.454 billion euros, down 5% from last year. This includes an unfavorable foreign exchange impact of negative 145 million euros.