CAC 40 Moderately Higher On Trade Deal Hopes

(RTTNews) - French stocks are gaining some ground in positive territory on Thursday amid rising hopes the European Union will strike a trade deal with the U.S. sometime soon.

EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said there was good progress on a framework trade agreement and a deal may even be possible within days.

Investors are shrugging off U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to impose a 50% tariff on copper imports, along with a separate levy on Brazlian goods. The levies will take effect on August 1.

The benchmark CAC 40 was up 48.19 points or 0.61% at 7,926.65 a few minutes ago.

Pernod Ricard is gaining about 3.6%. Dassault Systemes is climbing up 3.1% and ArcelorMittal is up 2.7%. Capgemini and Kering are up 2.3% and 2.1%, respectively.

Schneider Electric, Publicis Groupe, L'Oreal, LVMH, STMicroElectronics, Stellantis, Hermes International, Michelin, Legrand and Teleperformance are advancing 1 to 2%.

Societe Generale is down 1.4%. Accor is lower by about 1.25%, while Edenred and Orange are down 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively. BNP Paribas, Safran and Credit Agricole are modestly lower.

On the economic front, official data showed France recorded a current account deficit of EUR3098 million in May.