The Paris stock market ended the session down 1.33%, at 7378 points, heavily penalized by the decline of luxury goods stocks such as Hermès (-6.5%), LVMH (-5%) and Kering (-3%).

This morning, investors were treated to the HCOB PMI composite index for France. The index reported further monthly growth in the French private sector in May, to 51.4. Down on April (52.4), it testifies to a slowdown in overall expansion, particularly in the services sector.

'This weakening in expansion was largely the result of a deterioration in demand, with the overall volume of new business falling for the first time since February', explain the surveyors, who also point to a further decline in confidence.

For its part, the HCOB composite PMI index of overall activity in the eurozone contracted from 54.1 in April to 53.3 this month in flash estimate, signalling a fifth consecutive rise in private sector activity in the region, albeit at a slower pace.

Still on the statistics front, the US Commerce Department announced a surprise 4.1% rise in new home sales in April, to a seasonally-adjusted annualized volume of 683,000, above the market consensus.

The previous month, sales had already climbed by 4% (revised from the initial estimate of +9.6%). At 433,000, the stock of new homes ready for sale at the end of April represented a supply of 7.6 months at the current rate.

The downside is the -15% fall in new home prices since last October, which is faster than during the 2007/2010 correction episode.

Bond markets are showing a slightly negative bias, with +2 to +3pts yield on OATs and Bunds, +1.4pts on US T-Bonds at 3.725%.

In the Paris stock market, Société Générale (+3.9%) - where Slawomir Krupa is due to take over as CEO today - announced on Monday evening the completion of the acquisition of LeasePlan, by its mobility services subsidiary ALD.

Bonduelle announced the appointment of Xavier Unkovic as CEO, effective June 1. Until that date, Christophe Bonduelle, Chairman of the Board of Directors, will remain CEO of the agri-food group.

At the close of its OPAS, the French State held 3,908,590,275 EDF shares, i.e. 97.69% of the capital and at least 98.04% of the voting rights, and 130,829,543 OCEANE bonds, i.e. 99.97% of the number of outstanding OCEANE bonds, according to a Bercy press release.

As this result makes the implementation of a squeeze-out possible, the French State has submitted a request to the AMF to have all the shares not tendered to the offer transferred to it, at a price of 12 euros per share and 15.52 euros per OCEANE.

Finally, Faurecia announces that it has signed an agreement to sell part of its commercial vehicle exhaust aftertreatment business in Europe and the USA to Cummins.

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