BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks rose slightly on Thursday despite nagging concerns about inflation and the economic recovery from Covid-19.
Traders await U.S. manufacturing data and an update on the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits later in the day for further clues about economic recovery and the rate outlook.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 15 points, or 0.2 percent, at 7,172 after closing marginally higher in the previous session.
Automaker Renault rose more than 1 percent even as industry data showed European new car registrations fell at a faster double-digit pace in October.
Passenger car sales plunged 30.3 percent year-on-year, marking the fourth consecutive fall this year as the shortage of semiconductors weighed on auto production, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said.
Drug major Sanofi was down half a percent. The company announced an equity investment of $180 million and a new strategic collaboration with Owkin, a French American startup that specializes in artificial intelligence and federated learning for medical research.
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