BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - After opening slightly down, France's equity benchmark CAC 40 remained in negative territory a little past noon on Thursday as persisting worries about Middle East tensions and the likelihood of a wider U.S.-Iran conflict rendered the mood cautious.
After the United States launched a new wave of attacks in multiple locations across Iran on Wednesday night, Iran retaliated by launching fresh attacks on U.S. military bases in neighboring Gulf States.
The Iranian government warned the U.S. it would 'key targets' in the Middle East if its infrastructure is targeted.
The CAC 40 was down 56.32 points or 0.67% at 8,326.11 nearly a quarter past noon.
STMicroelectronics dropped about 3.4%. Legrand shed 2.7% and Schneider Electric drifted lower by 2.1%.
TotalEnergies, Kering, Veolia Environment, Bureau Veritas, Engie and ArcelorMittal fell 1%-1.7%.
Orange shed nearly 1%. Bouygues, L'Oreal, Eurofins Scientific, Euronext, Safran, Capgemini, Saint-Gobain and LVMH posted moderate losses.
Publicis Groupe rallied 3.3%. Shares of the advertising and communications group moved higher after the company reported strong second-quarter results and raised its FY26 guidance. The company's second-quarter bottom line totaled EUR793 million, or EUR3.15 per share. This compares with EUR824 million, or EUR3.25 per share, last year.
The company's revenue for the period rose 1.1% to EUR7.229 billion from EUR7.152 billion last year.
Credit Agricole moved up nearly 1%. BNP Paribas and Michelin advanced modestly higher.
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