Paris shares close higher on strong domestic earnings reports UPDATE

Paris shares close higher on strong domestic earnings reports UPDATE

	Published : Thu, 22 Feb 2007 18:16 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Updates with full report)

PARIS (AFX) - Share prices closed higher, spurred by a series of encouraging earnings reports from domestic companies, with Axa in focus following an improvement in new business profitability, dealers said.

The CAC-40 index finished up 11.73 points or 0.21 pct at 5,706.29, on volume of 5.2 bln euro.

Among CAC-40 stocks, 22 closed higher and 18 closed lower. On the Matif, March CAC-40 futures were trading up 9.0 or 0.16 pct at 5,174.5.

On the broader indices, the SBF-80 index closed up 15.10 or 0.21 pct at 7,130.91, while the SBF-120 finished 8.65 or 0.21 pct ahead at 4,186.21.

The euro was up slightly at 1.3137 usd versus 1.3132 usd late yesterday.

Insurer Axa finished up 0.56 eur or 1.69 pct at 33.69 after it reported a 20 pct rise in full-year underlying earnings, beating its 15 pct growth target, and raised its synergies target for the integration of Winterthur by 25 pct.

Analysts at Collins Stewart expect the results to fuel further upside in the shares, saying: 'Axa is likely to succeed in its medium-term strategic programme (Ambition 2012: revenues x2, earnings x3), which could add as much as 50 pct to the fair value of the stock.'

The biggest blue-chip climber was Schneider Electric, which added 3.00 or 3.19 pct to finish at 97.05, recovering yesterday's losses after being added to Goldman Sachs' 'Conviction Buy' list.

The broker said the fact that Schneider missed its 2004 targets has led the group to issue conservative estimates this time around but the strong performance at APC and in the group's core business mean it should easily beat these.

Arcelor Mittal also made good gains, rising 0.52 or 1.35 pct to 39.16 on the back of the group's strong forecasts yesterday for 2007.

Oddo Securities raised its target price for the stock to 44 eur from 40 in response to the comments, saying it expects 300 mln usd in additional synergies from the Arcelor-Mittal tie-up this year, and a 9 pct rise in steel prices for the US and Europe.

Lafarge also closed up 2.48 or 2.12 pct at 119.59 ahead of tomorrow's full-year earnings which are expected to show strong growth on the back of a solid business trend in the last few months of the year.

On the secondline, Technip climbed 1.95 or 3.86 to end at 52.49 after exceeding consensus with its 2006 earnings and announcing an exceptional 2.10 eur dividend for the full year.

AGF gained 1.36 or 1.07 pct to close at 129.10 after parent company Allianz SE said it had submitted its buyout offer to the French markets regulator today.

Allianz reiterated its ongoing offer to AGF shareholders of 87.50 eur plus 0.25 Allianz shares -- which are eligible for the group's 2006 dividend -- per AGF share.

Euler Hermes, which is 68.6 pct-owned by AGF, was also lifted by the news, adding 1.87 or 1.67 pct to end at 113.76.

On the downside, Gecina dropped 3.87 or 2.58 pct to 146.05 following yesterday's strong gains and after BNP Paribas downgraded its parent company Metrovacesa SA to 'underperform' from 'neutral'.

BNP Paribas said the company's plan to split its activities into two separate entities are duces the risk of corporate action and is likely to cause the shares' substantial overvaluation to disappear'.

Spir Communication fell 3.36 or 2.93 pct to 111.40, extending yesterday's losses which followed the group's disappointing comments on the outlook for 2007.

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