After a record close of nearly 8138 points on Wednesday evening, the CAC40 continues to climb, gaining 0.8% towards 8205 points.

'Whatever the news, traders remain confident in the future', notes Christopher Dembik, at Pictet AM, warning however that 'at a certain stage, we'll need a breather, at least to allow for profit-taking'.

'A future bad company publication or a bad statistic could be the trigger. This will allow those who missed out on the bullish rally at the start of the year to get in", says the professional.

"Finally, let's bear in mind that once the key interest-rate cut begins, a priori next June, a large part of the capital invested in money-market instruments will go into the equity market in search of a higher yield", he continues.

On the macroeconomic data front, traders will hear midday about US retail sales and industrial producer prices for February.

In other stock news, in vitro diagnostics specialist bioMérieux reports a 21% decline in net income for 2023, but a 2% organic increase in operating income.

The Iliad group's sales growth reached 10.4% to €9.24 billion in 2023, and 11.3% in Q4. Group EBITDAaL 2023, at 3.44 billion euros, was up 4.2% (2.1% pro forma organic). The Group's ambition is to achieve sales of 10 billion euros by 2024, and to become Europe's 5th largest mobile operator," says management.

Air Liquide announces the sale to Adenia Partners Ltd of its activities in twelve African countries, representing annual sales of around 60 million euros (less than 10% of the Group's sales on the continent).

Investors will also be able to react to the annual results unveiled on Wednesday evening by steel distributor Jacquet Metals, contract logistics group ID Logistics and engineering firm Assystem.

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