BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks shed ground on Wednesday as rising oil prices amid geopolitical tensions weighed on sentiment. Bond yields rose on concerns over political uncertainty in France, adding to the weak sentiment.
Oil prices rose, extending gains from the previous session on fears Iran is stepping up attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
U.K. Maritime Trade Operations said there had been nine attacks so far this month, half the number it reported for all of September in the waterway and Persian Gulf combined.
In a statement on the social media platform X, Yemen's Houthi group claimed that it carried out a series of drone and ballistic missile attacks targeting airports and military installations in Saudi Arabia.
Brent crude front-month futures were up 1.4% at $101.99 a barrel a little while ago.
The yield on France's 10-year government bond rose to 4.891%. The European Central Bank Governing Council member Emmanuel Moulin said the bond-market situation is serious but does not warrant intervention.
The benchmark CAC 40 was down 75.51 points or 0.96% at 7,789.56 nearly half an hour past noon.
Societe Generale shed about 3.9%. STMicroelectronics dropped 3.7% and ArcelorMittal drifted lower by 3.1%.
Legrand, Kering, BNP Paribas and Safran lost 2.2%-2.7%. Hermes International, Thales, Credit Agricole, Veolia Environment, Engie, Saint-Gobain, Accor, AXA and LVMH declined 1.3%-2%.
EssilorLuxottica, Eiffage, Euronext, Unibail Rodamco, Schneider Electric and Vinci also drifted notably lower.
Renault rallied nearly 2%. Pernod Ricard moved up 1.5% and Orange gained 1.3%. Publicis Groupe, Stellantis, Carrefour, Sanofi, Michelin and Bureau Veritas also climbed higher.
In economic news, France's trade deficit narrowed in August as the decline in imports exceeded the pace of fall in exports, data from the customs office showed.
The trade deficit fell to EUR 6.12 billion from EUR 6.59 billion in July. In the same period last year, the deficit was EUR 4.84 billion. Economists had forecast the trade shortfall to fall moderately to EUR 6.5 billion.
Exports dropped 0.8% on a monthly basis in August, while imports declined 1.5%. On a yearly basis, exports and imports grew 5.3% and 5.7%, respectively.
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