The Paris Stock Exchange ended in a sharp decline on Friday (-3.38%), recording its strongest weekly decline since the 2008 crisis, in a climate of great nervousness facing the epidemic of Covid-19 which is spreading.
The CAC 40 index fell 185 points to 5,309.90 points, in a high trading volume of 10.9 billion euros. The day before, he had already accused heavy losses of 3.32%.
In the past week, it has lost 11.94%. Since January 1, it has dropped 11.18%.
After a plunge of more than 3% at the opening, the Parisian odds increased its losses in the morning, before climbing up the slope a little to finish in extremis above the technical threshold of 5.300 points.
“The CAC 40 index recorded its largest weekly decline since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers” in the fall of 2008, commented for AFP Alexandre Baradez, an analyst at IG France.
“Psychologically, for investors, it will leave its mark. Because having a marked decline during periods of stress is one thing, but when it refers to the most serious crisis it is quite another,” he underlines. he.
The sideration is all the more vivid since last February 19, the CAC 40 was at a peak since 2007 (at 6,111.24 points).
“In not even two weeks, the index went from a high of 12 years to a low of six and a half months!” or since August 15, 2019, exclaims Mr. Baradez.
“Nobody wants to keep their position, even less before the weekend, because in two days anything is possible,” he adds.
With a volatility indicator (VIX) greater than 50, “it’s more than stress, it’s limit to panic. Historically we have been very rarely in these areas”, as in August 2015 when the Central Bank Chinese had devalued its currency and in 2009 at the time of the subprime crisis, he said.
- “Economic fear spreads” –
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Friday that it has raised to “very high”, its highest degree, the level of threat linked to the new coronavirus, which has infected some 79,000 people in China and more than 5,000 in the rest of the world.
If China was until recently the only global center of coronavirus, the risk has increased with the emergence of new source countries such as South Korea, Iran, and Italy.
Investors don’t actually have much to hang on for except “the hope of government and central bankers intervening to stem a spreading risk in the markets,” said Baradez.
“It is an economic fear that spreads to the markets before having the reality of the economic impact” of the coronavirus. “All the big events are canceled, which means that the consumption will be affected while it is an engine of growth in Western countries,” he said.
The table of values was written entirely in red ink.
At the bottom of the charts, TechnipFMC plunged 7.17% to 13.33 euros followed by Airbus which fell 6% to 108.10 euros.
Bank stocks suffered a lot both because they are penalized by the bond rates which are crashing, but also because they are exposed to Italy, like Societe Generale (-4.23% at 25.59 euros), Credit Agricole (-4.80% at 10.81 euros) and BNP Paribas (-3.53% at 43.79 euros).
