(Updating with full report)
PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Share prices closed higher, driven by speculation in the hotel sector which helped propel Accor up 10 pct, although trading remained moderate with Wall Street closed and ahead of ECB and BoE interest rate decisions later this week.
The CAC-40 index ended up 28.24 points or 0.47 pct at 6,098.08.
27 CAC
40 stocks closed higher, 11 lower and 2 unchanged.
Turnover for the day was 4.2 bln bln eur.
On the Matif, July CAC-40 futures were trading up 22 points at 6,107.
The euro was at 1.3609 usd against 1.3621 late yesterday.
Accor ended up 6.66 eur or 10.26 pct at 71.56, boosted both by the news real-estate investment firm Colony Capital has lifted its stake in the French group, and also general excitement about the hotel sector following the 26 bln usd private equity buy-out of Hilton Hotels.
Colony Capital raised its stake in Accor to 10.3 pct from the 5.7 pct declared in April by converting the remaining 500 mln eur of Accor bonds it held into shares. The move means that Colony is now Accor's largest shareholder.
'We believe that Colony, in the recent interest rate environment, is increasing its exposure to equity markets, and Accor offers a very attractive valuation in the sector,' SG Securities said in a note to clients, while their peers at Natixis Securities argued that 'Accor should benefit from very favourable prospects in the future and should positively surprise the market again.'
In a separate development, Accor announced yesterday it is to acquire Amorim Group's 50 pct stake in the Portuguese hotels joint venture in a deal valued at 69 mln eur.
Other significant bluechip climbers included Capgemini, up 1.40 or 2.60 pct at 55.26, after falling back slightly Monday and Tuesday following its surge last week on rumours of a possible bid from India's Infosys.
Peugeot rose 0.96 or 1.57 pct to 62.10. Some analysts pointed to renewed speculation the car maker may be mulling the sale of its parts subsidiary Faurecia -- down 0.28 or 0.45 pct at 61.85 after rising 2.66 pct yesterday.
Other marketwatchers cited instead continued optimism around the automotive sector.
Property company Unibail-Rodamco added 2.93 or 1.456 pct to 190.60. The stock has seen large price swings in the last two weeks amid worries the housing market and as investors have adjusted positions ahead of the delisting of Rodamco shares.
Schneider Electric gained 1.50 or 1.43 pct to 106.36, with analysts pointing to the stock's underperfomance in a booming sector as a reason behind today's rally. Kepler Equities said that it expects Schneider to upgrade its full-year guidance on organic growth.
On the downside, Renault saw profit-taking after yesterday's fresh highs, shedding 0.87 or 0.72 pct to 120.51.
Other decliners included would-be merger partners Gaz de France, down 0.14 or 0.36 pct at 38.26, and Suez, off 0.08 or 0.19 pct at 42.42.
Carrefour, down 0.34 or 0.64 pct at 52.75, and PPR, up 0.12 or 0.09 pct at 131.59, also trailed the market after notching up strong speculative gains yesterday.
Groupe Danone inched up 0.10 or 0.16 pct to 61.81. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said its 'A+' and 'A-1' ratings with a stable outlook remain unchanged on news of Danone's talks to sell its biscuits division to Kraft Foods.
Outside the CAC-40, Sodexho Alliance was up 0.67 or 1.24 pct at 54.61 after analysts focused on the strength of the like-for-like growth in its nine-month sales.
Sodexho said like-for-like growth for the period was 7.8 pct, down from 8.2 pct in the first half but up from 5.9 pct in the year-earlier nine-month period.
Groupe Eurotunnel shares steadied after losing more than half of their value in the first two days of trade following the one-for-one conversion of most investment units in Eurotunnel SA and Eurotunnel PLC into the new stock.
The shares ended down 0.03 or 5.00 pct at 0.57.
In a separate development, former Eurotunnel co-chairman Andre Benard was cleared of charges that he supplied misleading information to shareholders in 1994. Two other senior officials, James Lyle of SBS bank, and David Wenman, of Tiger Investment fund, were also acquitted in the trial that opened in April, following a 13-year investigation.
The officials were targeted in a complaint by some 800,000 small shareholders alleging misleading information had been supplied by Eurotunnel during a share issue in 1994 that caused a slump in their investments. tfn.paris@thomson.com gt/lam/gt/dca COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.
© 2007 AFX News
