French stocks rallied on Thursday as investors took in their stride the possibility of more interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and turned their focus back to strong corporate earnings from the likes of Airbus and Schneider Electric.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 70 points or 1.37 percent at 5,235 in opening deals after climbing 1.1 percent on Wednesday.
Schneider Electric shares rallied 5.7 percent. The electrical equipment producer overcame currency headwinds to post a record net profit in 2017.
Airbus soared more than 9 percent. The plane maker posted improved earnings last year on the back of record plane deliveries.
Air Liquide advanced 1.7 percent after its 2017 sales surpassed 20 billion euros.
IT services group Capgemini jumped 2.5 percent after its annual revenue topped forecasts, driven by demand for digital and cloud services.
Renault rose over 1 percent and Peugeot advanced 2.5 percent after industry data showed demand for passenger cars grew 7.1 percent in January from the previous year, reversing a 4.9 percent drop in December.
In economic releases, France's unemployment rate declined in the fourth quarter to the lowest level since early 2009, the statistical office Insee said.
The ILO jobless rate in metropolitan France and the overseas departments came in at 8.9 percent of the labor force, the lowest since early 2009. The rate decreased by 0.7 percentage points sequentially.
by RTT Staff Writer
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