Paris (France) (AFP) – The Paris Stock Exchange ended slightly lower on Thursday, cautiously digesting the decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) to leave its rates unchanged, against a backdrop of widespread market concern for the tech sector.
Published on: 05/02/2026 - 18:39
The CAC 40 lost 0.29% to 8,238.17 points, down 23.99 points. The day before, the flagship Parisian index had lost 1.01%, to 8,262.16 points.
The European Central Bank (ECB) left its key rates unchanged on Thursday, for the fifth time in a row, estimating that the current strength of the euro and the slowdown in inflation do not immediately force it to change course.
The deposit rate was maintained at 2.00%, as expected by observers.
According to the ECB, "inflation should stabilize at its target of 2% in the medium term", in a "difficult global environment".
“With central banks no longer moving, we are moving into a less accommodating environment on a monetary level,” explains Cyrille Collet, director of quantitative equity management at CPRAM, interviewed by AFP.
Another point of attention for investors: growing doubts about the valuations of the tech and artificial intelligence sector, one of the drivers of the rise in global markets.
Players “are wondering whether the massive investments in artificial intelligence by large technology groups will be profitable,” explains Mr. Collet.
The launch on Tuesday evening, by the start-up Anthropic, behind the Claude language model, of a new AI tool designed to handle legal and research tasks, ignited the powder, raising fears of a danger for the economic model of the software sector.
“We are starting to take into account the fact that the development of artificial intelligence will have a social cost, with job destruction”, which will have “consequences on the macroeconomic level”, adds Mr. Collet.
More generally, "the markets are currently in a position of aversion to risky assets", which weighs on stocks, notes Christine Romar, at CMC Markets.
On the bond market, the French rate with a ten-year maturity reached 3.44%, compared to 3.45% the day before at closing.
BNP Paribas on the rise
BNP Paribas climbed 1.15% to 91.98 euros, after announcing a strong end to 2025, with a record net profit for the year, above 12 billion euros.
ArcelorMittal praised
The steelmaker ArcelorMittal advanced 3.08% to 49.01 euros, after it published on Thursday a net profit of 3.15 billion dollars for 2025, against 1.34 billion a year earlier. The market also sees an improvement in the group's prospects. The company said its results would benefit from protectionist measures from the European Union.
Stellantis is moving backwards with the automobile
The Stellantis automotive group fell 5.69% to 8.17 euros, like a large part of the automotive sector in Europe, which suffered from poor results from Volvo Car.
The latter collapsed by 22.53% to 22.93 euros on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, after announcing an operating profit down 51% to 1.9 billion crowns in the last quarter, far from the 4.6 billion crowns expected by the consensus of analysts established by Bloomberg.
© 2026 AFP
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