French presidential first round poll sends stocks high

Stocks in France and exchanges in European markets opened on a rosy note on Monday after pro-market and Europe stance Emmanuel Macron's win in the first round offered a relief to investors.

The benchmark index CAC 40 in Paris rose sharply by 4.53 per cent in early trading to stand at 5,228 points, the index best performance since 2007, Xinhua news agency reported.

Heavyweight banking sector jumped by 6.15 per cent with France's leading banks BNP Paribas, Cerdit Agricole and Societe Generale surging by 8.6, 8.89 and 9.58 per cent respectively.

Euphoria triggered by a victory of an advocate of strong eurozone sent stocks of London's FTSE up by 1.86 per cent while Frankfurt transactions were also lifted by optimistic French election outcome. They were high by 2.88 per cent.

The European index, the EuroStoxx 50 rose by 2.03 per cent.

"Investors are reassured by the very likely prospect of seeing Macron at the Elysee. It lifts the risk of having an extremist party hostile to the European construction and which would have had very negative consequences on the future of the euro area," said Jean-Marie Mercadal, chief operating officer at OFI AM.

Latest results issued by the Interior Ministry earlier on Monday showed Macron dominating the vote with 23.75 per cent against far-rightist Marine Le Pen's 21.53 per cent. Both will face off in a run-off in two weeks.

Pollsters predicted the former economy minister to comfortably defeat the rival.

--IANS

py/vt