The Paris Bourse ended the session at 8137 points (+0.62%), its new closing record, after setting a new intraday record at 8157 points earlier in the day.

The Paris index was driven in particular by Schneider Electric and BNP Paribas (+2.1%).

Yesterday's rather disappointing report on US inflation did nothing to dampen the momentum on the markets, a momentum underpinned by investor enthusiasm for technology stocks as generative AI takes center stage.

Investments in this field, particularly in companies such as Meta and Salesforce, have achieved excellent returns in 2023", points out Erling Haugan Kise, fund manager at DNB Asset Management.

With few statistics on the agenda today, there was little movement on bonds, with the US T-Bond dropping +2.5pts to 4.182%, while in Europe, Bunds tightened +2pts to 2.346%.

Note the new all-time high for Bitcoin, at $72,700 (+2.2%), while the dollar remains stable against the euro, at around $1.09/E.
The late afternoon was a busy one for the energy sector, with a barrel of oil climbing +1.5% to around $83.6.

On the value front, Vallourec (+7.4%) announced that ArcelorMittal had reached an agreement to buy Apollo's 28.4% voting rights and 27.5% shareholding in its capital, for a total of 955 million euros.

BNP Paribas (+2.1%) estimates that '2024 will be above the net distributable income published in 2023', and reports an acceleration and expansion of its operating efficiency measures by around 400 million euros in recurring costs.

Solvay (+3.4%) reports underlying net income from continuing operations of 588 million euros for 2023, compared with 740 million previously, but free cash flow (FCF) up 17.3% to 561 million, representing a record FCF conversion rate of 45.4%.

Dassault Systèmes and Rexel announce that their Boards of Directors will propose dividends of 0.23 euro and 1.20 euro per share respectively for 2023, in cash, to their AGMs.

Thales has extended its partnership with Neural Labs, a company providing video analytics for smart cities and AI-based intelligent transportation systems (ITS).

Thales has also announced the modernization of air traffic management at Astana and Almaty airports in Kazakhstan with the deployment of Advanced Surface Movement Control and Guidance System (A-SMGCS).

Last but not least, Rubis took a 1.5% stake after announcing that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with I Squared Capital for the sale of its 55% stake in the Rubis Terminal JV.

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