DECRYPTION – For the first time since the creation of the index, the cumulative net result of French flagships was negative in the first half.
–They are not all in the red, but all (or almost) are affected by a decline in their activity or their profits, often both at the same time. The giants of the CAC 40 are sick with Covid-19. The symptoms are visible in the accounts of the first half: the largest groups listed on the Paris Stock Exchange posted an overall net loss of 1.7 billion euros, against a profit of 43.5 billion in the same period of 2019 .
The situation is unprecedented since the creation of the flagship index of the Paris Bourse in 1987. After the financial crisis of 2008, overall profits had certainly plunged (35% that year, then 20% the following year) , but they had remained overall positive, at 47 billion euros in 2009, when only a handful of groups had fallen into the red.
At the end of the first half of 2020, the state of play is radically different. Of the 37 CAC 40 giants that have published their results in recent days (Bouygues, Cap Gemini and Pernod Ricard will report
