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Sodexo and Publicis still considered the best candidates for CAC 40

Sodexo and Publicis are the best candidates for an entry in the CAC 40 if a change in the composition of the index consider Friday traders and analysts surveyed by Reuters.

Similarly, they cite Lagardère and Accor among potential exits.

The date of the quarterly meeting of the scientific evidence of NYSE Euronext is not official, but the rule is that the announcement of possible changes to make at least two weeks prior to their implementation, expected by Friday 17 experts September after-hours trade.

If this were the case, the announcement of these changes would take place and by the opening of markets on Monday.

In NYSE-Euronext, it provides no details relating to the timing of the board index this month.

Anyway, despite rumors of "spring cleaning" in the ACC, experts expect instead that the board does not make big changes, consistent with its having indices relatively stable in their composition .

"The board will be rather conservative.I do not see a huge overhaul with multiple inputs and outputs of the ACC, "said a quantitative analyst, who declined to be identified.

LAST CHANGE: REPLACED BY TECHNIP FRANCE AIR

In a recent note available on the market, Exane BNP Paribas said it expects "no more than a change" in the ACC.

The last change in the composition of the CAC held a year ago with the release of Air France-KLM, which had been replaced by Technip.

In addition to Sodexo and Publicis, the experts also cite Natixis as a title of CAC Next 20, CAC 40's antechamber, the best position to take the step, under the criteria for capitalization and liquidity cash loans.

However, despite its increase of 24% since the beginning of the year, the already substantial weight in the ACC Bank, an extremely volatile, could play against her.

"Sodexo and Publicis Groupe candidates are the most balanced. Liquidity Sodexo is not as good as the Publicis Groupe, but its market capitalization is greater than the group of advertising," wrote analysts at Exane.

"If I had to choose, I choose Sodexo, which is the largest value of the relatively liquid CAC Next 20," said a quantitative analyst based in London."But they could also decide to do nothing at all," he adds.

Side exits, Dexia is also cited as potential exits, but the board index could drop to the negative impact this could have on the bank in trouble, say some stakeholders.

Lagardere, by far the lowest capitalization of the CAC 40, and Accor, whose size has declined since the graduation of its services business Edenred are most clearly eligible, they are likely to emphasize.

Changes in the composition of indices cause movements in the securities on the part of managers that replicate indices.For example Sodexo and Publicis, an entry in the ACC lead, respectively, equivalent to 13.1 purchases and 8.6 days of trading, while for Lagardere, would represent an output equivalent to 14.3 days sales transactions, Exane analysts said.

H & M uses the label Lanvin for his fall collection

Hennes & Mauritz said on Thursday that the fashion label Lanvin would draw her new clothing line, sold in the fall.

The Swedish group, Third World chain clothing stores, known for its trendy and cheap clothing, and regularly appeal to the world of fashion and show business to design collections.

The singer Madonna, or the creators Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney and Roberto Cavalli have been solicited by the group.

These collections have little impact on the total turnover of the group, but analysts believe they provide visibility for the brand and enhance its image.

"Lanvin will provide to H & M tradition of French luxury, both modern and full of fantasy", explains Margareta van den Bosch, Advisor at H & M creation

This collection, designed by the artistic director of Lanvin, Alber Elbaz, and menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver, will be launched on November 23 in 200 H & M stores worldwide.

Wall Street opens up, driven by mergers and acquisitions

Wall Street opened on earnings Monday, investors regaining confidence through several projects of mergers and acquisitions.

A few minutes after the start of trading, the Dow Jones gained 0.54% to 10,268.56 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 index 0.58% to 1077.89 points and the Nasdaq Composite 0.67% to 2194.34 points.

Hewlett-Packard on Monday launched an offer of 1.6 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) to acquire the data storage company 3PAR, competing with the offer of its rival Dell issued last week.

Titles 3PAR Dell responded to the rise of this announcement, gaining 0.83% respectively and 42%, while HP lost 0.27% at the opening.

The group Campbell Soup gained 0.19% after announcing consider an offer of 1.5 billion pounds (2.3 billion dollars) on the activities of Britain's United Biscuits cookies.

Finally, 3M took the 1.10% group is likely to spend about two billion dollars (1.6 billion) in acquisitions this year, twice more than its previous estimate.

"This suggests that companies have reached a point where they want to grow their cash. (…) This is obviously a positive sign for markets," said Michael O'Rourke, a specialist market with BTIG LLC.

Crédit Agricole sealed by its subsidiary in Greece

Crédit Agricole has extended by one year the return to profit of its Greek subsidiary Emporiki due to credit losses more than expected because of the recession in Greece. The woes of its Greek subsidiary Crédit Agricole will require to spend a further depreciation of 400 million euros in its accounts the second quarter, after the 500 million spent last year.

The French bank, which bought Emporiki in 2006, told analysts still expected a pretax loss of 130 million euros for its subsidiary in 2011, instead of a profit of around 10 million expected initially. For 2010, the expected loss for Emporiki will also increase, to EUR -750 000 000 -350 000 000 cons around. Return to the green accounts is the Greek subsidiary of the blow pushed to 2012 instead of 2011.Around 12:30, the Crédit abandoned agricultural 4.9% to 9.472 euros, underperforming the sector index Stoxx 600 European banks (-2.13%). BNP Paribas and Societe Generale fell by 3.3% and 4.6%.

Battered stock market because of fears surrounding its exposure to the crisis in Greek, the title Credit Agricole sells more than 22% since January 1. Pressed by the market, the bank eventually amount to 850 million euro exposure to sovereign debt Greek."We realize qu'Emporiki always weighs more heavily on agricultural credit, with a cost of risk emerges from 450 million euros more than expected in the original plan," said Tom Bartholomew, head of credit research at Louis Capital Market.

Standardization in 2013

The economic crisis in Greece was in fact forced Crédit Agricole to harden its scenario losses on credit, which is increased by 450 million euros between 2010 and 2013. According to the bank, the cost of risk will normalize in 2013. Leaded by two successive years of losses in 2008 and 2009, Emporiki has also been recapitalized in March by Credit Agricole, to the tune of 989 million euros.

Its parent company now estimates qu'Emporiki will have a "specific need" for 550 million of additional capital by the end of 2011 to confront the crisis and complete its restructuring.Taken to a drastic plan to reduce its costs, the Greek subsidiary of Crédit Agricole had already planned last year to reduce its overhead 21% and close 57 branches, resulting in the departure of 1,500 employees.

The French bank believes that the decline in enrollment of Emporiki will be "faster" in 2010 but "slower than anticipated in 2011. In this scenario, the operating rate of Emporiki will improve faster than expected in 2011 to 62.5% instead of 68.8%.

Axa, focus on margins rather than growth in 2010

Axa announced Wednesday better than expected financial results for the first half despite an increase in half-mast, a performance in line with its objective to give priority to the recovery in margins rather than its development.

The second group of European insurance by market capitalization has reaffirmed its commitment to reallocate capital to its geographical margins of the most promising, even to withdraw from certain activities in mature areas.

"That does not mean that we do not have aggressive strategies in certain areas at present" said CEO Henri de Castries, and in an interview broadcast by the insurance group.

The manager has shown this strategy through the recent sale of several business lines in Britain and a willingness to invest in countries and trades in Asia, South America or Eastern Europe.

"This strategy is not as simple as when the whole world was growing at the same pace," he said.

Axa has benefited in the first half of rebounding financial markets and a better performance of its life insurance business, savings and pensions business, which offset the damage, which has suffered many natural disasters earlier this year .

NO CHANGE OF SENTIMENT

If these results are rather a good surprise, two analysts issued notes in the wake of the results fell they should not substantially change investor sentiment vis-à-vis the company.

At 09:15, the title was up 1.4% at 14.94 euros, after opening up over 2.6%, while the CAC 40 index yielded 0.2%.

Axa has lost about 10.9% since the beginning of the year, underperforming the European index DJStoxx insurance, which gained 3.16% over the same period.

The group's net profit stood at 944 million euros, a figure well above the 623 million approached by the consensus of analysts conducted by the editor of Reuters.

If the result is displayed down 28% over the same period last year, this drop is due to the supply of 1.478 billion euros spent by the group following the sale of assets United Kingdom, cited by Henri de Castries.

Without this extraordinary loss, net income would rise by 81% while revenues only increased it by 1% to 49.925 billion euros.

The decline in operating income amounted to 3% to 2.082 billion euros, superior performance under one billion to 1.884 to Reuters.

Axa has not commented on the offer of 11.5 billion dollars from the National Australia Bank on its subsidiary AXA Asia Pacific.

The subsidiary has announced a profit of 219.2 million Australian dollars for the first six months of the year, a figure in line with market expectations.

The offer, which clashed with the Australian authorities to the competition runs until August 31.

Wall Street opening undecided

Wall Street operates on a hesitant note in early trading, pending the publication of monthly statistics of sales of new homes.

The major indexes started up after raising earnings forecasts from FedEx Group but they quickly moved into the red.

Ten minutes into trading, the Dow Jones was almost in equilibrium at 10,427.27 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was virtually unchanged at 1102.91 points and the Nasdaq Composite Index retreated 0.16 % to 2265.93 points.

FedEx earned more than 4% after raising its earnings forecast for the quarter and year.

Values pharmaceutical react to rumors of acquisition of biotech company Genzyme. Genzyme earned the title at 5.33% 65.85 dollars in early trade.

Finally, the BP side as New York took 2.79% to 37.89 dollars before the board meeting, scheduled for Monday evening, which could define the modalities of the departure of CEO Tony Hayward and announce his replacement by Bob Dudley, the American leader who also oversees the fight against the oil spill.

French banks manage stress tests

French banks BNP Paribas, SocGen, Credit Agricole and BPCE, parent company Natixis, have passed the stress tests conducted by European authorities said on Friday the Bank of France.

In a statement, the regulator said that following the test on a scenario of economic decline worse than expected and a new crisis on the European sovereign debt, the four French banks show a ratio of Tier One financial solvency through 9 3% at end 2011.

In this scenario, which holds a particular hypothesis of two years of recession in the euro area in 2010 and 2011, European regulators demanded that they tested 91 European banks show a ratio of at least 6%.

"This is a satisfactory result, not surprisingly, is quite comforting," said Christian Noyer, Governor of the Bank of France at a press briefing.

Christian Noyer, who is also member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, said that the total exposure of the four French banks, European sovereign debt amounted to 240 billion euros at end-March, which accounted for 43 billion in their "trading book" (portfolio of financial assets).

He also explained that a risk of default on sovereign debt of a sovereign state had been excluded from testing scenarios.

To restore investor confidence, the European Union 91 European banks submitted to stress tests to ensure that their capital was adequate to cope with a worsening economic conditions and financial market shocks.

Led by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) and drawing lessons from the debt crisis of Greek, tests have included discounts which reduce the market value of some bonds.

Fears of contagion in Europe of the fiscal crisis of Greece has weighed heavily in recent months on financial stocks.

The sector index Stoxx 600 European banks yields almost 5% since the beginning of the year.

Soitec is a return to equilibrium in H1

Soitec said Monday sales of 2010-2011 in the first quarter increased 56.5% over the same quarter in 2009-2010 and 9.6% from the previous quarter, against a background of strong demand and thanks to a favorable currency effect.

The world's leading manufacturer of silicon-on insulation (SOI) for the microelectronics industry said in a press having achieved sales of 68.6 million euros over the period April to June 2010.

Soitec anticipates sequential growth in sales over 20% in first half on the basis of one euro to $ 1.27, with a return to balanced operating income, including its new photovoltaic business Concentrix.

"The latest information on the second quarter show a level of wafer sales support," said the company in a statement. "On a sequential basis, the quasi-stable plate sales at constant exchange rates to continue to support the initial prediction of the group given the correct orientation of the demand," she adds.

Soitec announced in May that a return to operational balance power could intervene in the first half, Concentrix out after a loss of 28.9 million euros in 2009-2010 and 28.4 million in 2008-2009.

Soitec acquired last December 80% of photovoltaic systems provider Concentrix.

The hope of good results supports Wall Street

Wall Street has ended sharply higher on Tuesday, posting a sixth win in a row, in response to results and forecasts of Alcoa aluminum companies.

Alcoa reported Monday better than expected quarterly results while revising upwards its forecast for global demand for aluminum.

Alcoa shares closed up 1.2% to $ 11.

"The fact we think this trend (solid results) will contribute to re-confirm the risk in the market," said Peter Cardillo (Avalon Partners).

The Dow Jones gained 1.44% to 10,363.02 points. The S & P 500 has been 1.53% to 1095.29 points.The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.99% to 2242.03 points.

The S & P has gained over 5% last week, the highest weekly gain this year and scholars eagerly awaiting the results of companies to see if this rally is justified.

But the decline in volumes worries some analysts. The volume on Monday fell to a new low of six months, observes Scott Fullman (WJB Capital Group). He also noted a decrease in the total volume of options.

Low volumes generally pass to denote a lack of conviction of investors.The summer period, however, may also explain the slowdown.

Statistic of the day was the trade deficit widened in May to its highest level since November 2008.

The Apple stock has yielded 2% to 252.11 dollars, after the site specializes Consumer Reports had indicated that he did not recommend the iPhone 4, his tests have confirmed a loss of signal when the handset is required to somehow.

Action Research In Motion, maker of the Blackberry competitor, has instead increased from 3.35% to 55.6 million.

Intel, which was to publish its quarterly after the close, gained 2.14% to 21.01 dollars.

The auction site eBay jumped from 4% to 21.02 dollars.

And even if it is pursued by XPRT Ventures company which is claiming nearly four billion dollars in damages for alleged infringement of six patents related to the development of related payment systems such as PayPal.

The European Commission awarded it a satisfactory plan of Athens

The European Commission said Wednesday that the reform program initiated by Greece out of the recession and the debt crisis was largely on track.

The process of fiscal consolidation is consistent with guidelines established under the rescue plan member countries of the euro, the commission said in a report on his mission to Athens for the month of June

Brussels also awarded full marks to the advancement of fiscal and structural reforms of pensions and the site opened by the government of George Papandreou in exchange for massive financial support from its European partners and the IMF.

The report notes as well that if tax revenues were slightly below expectations, lower expenditure of the State is it more pronounced than expected.

But the Commission considers that the Greek economy suffers from a lack of competition and some macroeconomic data are incomplete.

"Although this overall assessment is positive, with an application of this program largely on track, this preliminary review has identified a number of pressure points and areas where further progress is necessary," reads the report in .

Greece, the debt crisis has shaken the euro area, negotiated a financial assistance of 110 billion euros with the EU and the International Monetary Fund and pledged in return to a policy of economic stringency in particular through a reform of its pension system adopted in late June by the government.

On Monday, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said he was confident his country's ability to meet its goal of reducing the budget deficit to 8.1% of GDP this year, against 13.6% in 2009.

To access the full report of the Commission, in English, double-click here