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The Paris Bourse is scheduled to begin last week's meeting in decline, in the wake of U.S. markets worried about the difficulties in Europe – Wall Street closed down over 1% – and the Nikkei in Tokyo down the same order Friday morning.

Since the beginning of the week, the CAC 40, which replaced the European aid plan of 750 billion euros announced in the night from Sunday to Monday. Last week, the CAC 40 index had fallen more than 11%.

Thursday evening, the benchmark index of Paris has stood still while the rest of Europe has evolved disparate: Spanish IBEX fell 1.11% to 9,977 points, when the BEL 20 has folded 0.22%, to 2534 points. While the Dax frankfurt took some 1.1% to 6251 points and the FTSE in London, 0.93%, to 5433 points.

The IMF: a report on public finances G20

Today, Europe is free of major statistical.In contrast, the United States, the indices continue to rain. Are scheduled for this afternoon publication of retail sales in April, very controlled, industrial production for the same month – also highly regarded – the index of confidence from the University of Michigan for the month of May – for a forecast of economic health – and stocks and sales companies in March.

Other important events this Friday, the IMF will publish its report at 5:01 p.m. on the budget deficit and public debt G20 Fast Cash Without a hassle.

EADS net profit down 39%

The giant European aerospace firm EADS said Friday a 39% drop in net profit to 103 million euros. The A380 still weighs heavily on the performance of EADS. The group has however confirmed its objectives for the year.

For this Friday, it is the only publication of results and no presentation of turnover is expected.

However, investors will follow the evolution of Cr?dit Agricole, showered yesterday: Securities fell 3.56% Thursday evening at the closing (the largest drop in the CAC 40). The bank posted earnings of 470 million euros in the first quarter when its rivals Societe Generale and BNP Paribas are respectively reached profits of more than 1 billion euros and 2.3 billion in the first quarter of 2010.

Furthermore, the Attorney General of New York has opened an investigation into eight banks, including Credit Agricole, to determine if they had provided misleading information about their mortgages before the subprime crisis, "according to The New York Times.

EDF side, the series on electricity prices is not over.Priced at 42 euros per MWh, the price increases would be 11.4% in 2011 and 3.5% per year between 2011 and 2025, according to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER). Figures disputed by EDF. The government – which sets prices for electricity – and EDF belie such increase.

A few days after the publication of a sales soaring and better than expected, Ghosn perfect its operation seduction. The CEO of the automaker, which suffered heavy losses last year with 3.1 billion euros of losses, it is one of the most important sector, pledged on Friday at the annual Shareholders' return in the green "no later than 2011.

A challenge for the "cost killer" at Nissan, the shareholders re-elected for four years without surprise at the head of the automaker. Five years after its accession to the presidency of the group, the economic conditions in 2010 should however be difficult. The scheduled shutdown of the scrappage scheme in particular, should not contribute to boost the profits of Renault, who anticipates a decline of 10% of the European market this year.

"The club small groups producing more than 7 million cars a year"

To find the flexibility brought by the loan of 6 billion euros granted by the state earlier this year, Ghosn has also committed to the shareholders to repay that money more quickly than expected, it ie before the year 2014 Guaranteed fast personal loans. "We will refund well before the deadline and we will refund if possible in concert with our friends at PSA," he said. The lion brand was in effect at the time assisted the same amount.

The manufacturer expects to have the freedom again to close and installing production units it wants to reduce its costs.One recalls the intervention of Nicolas Sarkozy to stop the entire production of the Clio in Turkey …

Carlos Gohn finally defended the recent alliance with Daimler, well received by analysts but with more caution by the shareholders of a German manufacturer of luxury cars. "With Daimler, we enter into the restricted club of groups producing more than 7 million cars a year," argued the head of the corporation.

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"Greece can she leave the euro area?

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"What risks for European banks?

"Why do they attack the markets as Portugal?

"Does France have any reason to worry?

• Greece can she leave the euro area?

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The want it – despite the financial risks – Greece would have the greatest difficulty to get out of the eurozone for legal reasons. If a Member State may be expelled from the EU if it no longer meets the political criteria, this option is not provided by the Treaties for the euro area. This legal vacuum is subject to interpretation."It is inconceivable that a Member State legally so the euro area without retiring in parallel with the European Union," says Phoebus Athanassiou, legal adviser to the ECB. As for expulsion from the monetary union, it would be "virtually impossible from a legal standpoint, because it would amend the treaties unanimously, says he, in a research note. Angela Merkel had called in March to exclude the possibility of a country does not fulfill the conditions of membership of the single currency. Without revising the treaties, the option of expulsion would be "perhaps achievable through the back door" by establishing a de facto monetary union with two speeds. The emerging countries could keep the euro as parallel currency.But it is more of a possibility is more theoretical than practical, as the hazards are many.

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• What is the role of rating agencies?

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Rating agencies – the number three in the world – are private and independent agencies that assign a score to countries or financial companies. Investors rely on this note to know the risk level of bonds they buy. Each agency to its own methodology. Standard & Poor's, for example, attributes the "AAA" rating to the best transmitters, then descends to "AA" and "A" and "BBB". Each time, these notes are accompanied by signs + or -.Then, the notes come down to "BB" and are then considered to reflect the level of obligations "rotten" … In general, the rating reflects the percentage probability that the issuer will default. Thus, an issuer rated triple AAA, like France, has 0% chance to fail in three years. An issuer 'BB', as is now Greece, 23.08% to fail within three years.

• Greece can go bankrupt?

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Photo credits: AFP

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Wednesday nudged up its forecast for global growth but said the risks to the recovery, particularly the developed countries' public debt and imbalances in capital flows. In fact, the institution has maintained its growth forecast for the eurozone to 1% in 2010, while stressing the fragility of the recovery against the risk of the Greek budget crisis and its possible contagion effects.

In its "World Economic Outlook, the IMF now expects growth of 4.2% against 3.9% estimated in January. The forecast of +4.3% for 2011 is unchanged. In 2009, world GDP had declined by 0.6%.

"The recovery of the global economy has developed better than expected," said Fund."The activity recovers at different rates, timidly in many advanced countries, but strong in most emerging and developing," he noted.

Growth will be slower in Europe (1% in the euro area, 1.3% in the United Kingdom) and Japan (1.9%). It would be higher in contrast to the United States (3.1%). But it would mainly driven by emerging markets and developing countries (6.3%), the Asia head (8.7%, 10% for China).

In this context, the IMF expressed concern about the impact on capital flows."Estimates of IMF economists show that current account imbalances will increase significantly with the resumption of world trade, improving financial conditions and the stabilization of commodity prices at higher levels," said the institution No fax pay day loan.

"The currencies of a number of Asian economies remain undervalued in significant proportions in the case of the yuan, while the dollar and the euro remained strong over the medium term fundamentals," said the IMF.

In addition, the Fund insisted on another risk to global growth, the swelling public debt of developed countries.

While advising maintain expansionary policies in 2010, he believes that "many of these countries must also take urgent credible medium-term strategies to reduce public debt and then back to more conservative levels ."The risks associated with foreign states may depress the activity for a variety of reasons," noted the IMF.

"The high ratios of debt (relative to GDP, ie) would hinder budgetary flexibility, lead to higher interest rates in the general economy, increase the vulnerability of economies budgetary difficulties, and compressing the growth," he listed.

Finally, the Fund has called on governments to "repair and reform the financial sector, to end the gaps in regulation, and to" support the creation of jobs and the unemployed, the unemployment rate to remain at around 8.5% in developed countries until the end of 2011.

STOCK markets take a breather. In Paris the CAC 40 tumbled 1.94%, to finish the session in 4000 exactly 3 points at 986.63 points. The announcement of action against the U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs has literally showered the markets.

The indices that had evolved sawtooth most of the day were immediately plunged. Almost everywhere, investors chose to pocket their gains on the values that have risen more. In London, the FTSE fell 1.39% and in Frankfurt the Dax dropped 1.76%.

Wall Street had previously lined up six sessions was washed away.Shortly before the close of European stock exchanges, the Dow Jones slid 0.51% and the Nasdaq by 0.76%.

Goldman Sachs Sticky

The U.S. stock market watchdog, the SEC announced Friday it was suing the U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs to "fraud" on the sale of investment securities linked to subprime mortgages, called "subprime" ( see also page 21). The good news continued to flow as the business side as the economy fell into the background. Thus, the highly anticipated conglomerate General Electric, as well as those of Bank of America, the Internet giant Google, the specialist of AMD microprocessors, or the toy maker Mattel has exceeded all expectations.

Good news also on the side of macroeconomic indicators in the United States.Housing starts housing as the number of building permits issued rose more than expected in February. In Europe, the public debt remains a central concern. Greece announced Friday its intention to raise 1.5 billion euros in Treasury bills. Tuesday an initial public offering had already helped to raise 1.56 billion euros. The announcement comes as the Europeans and the IMF are finalizing the program of aid to Greece. Finance ministers from the euro zone met in Madrid on Friday for an update on the crisis in Greece. And a new mission of the IMF and the European Commission is expected in Athens on Monday.

lefigaro.fr / jdf.com: carbon tax rejected, disagreements at the Copenhagen summit. These events would not they have a negative impact on Socially Responsible Investment (SRI)?

Alain Zeitouni: I think, however, that these cons-time advocate of SRI. They illustrate the inability of states to agree on what policy to adopt and highlight companies that have a real socially responsible approach. Investing in SRI is an investment in a well-run company with good governance and employability positive and more likely to see its share price appreciate.

AFG (French Association of Financial Management) will also require management companies by July 31, a code of ethics which they must answer a series of questions about their SRI policy.Management companies will therefore have an obligation to be transparent with investors in our case, we will put this code available to our customers on our website.

Why did you choose the multi *? How do you reconcile with SRI?

As a society, we believe it is more appropriate to rely on several topics related to SRI, rather than a team with SRI extra-financial analysis.It is well known that our SRI funds Alphastar Barclays profit pricing that allows investors to actively contribute to social awareness, with 20% management fee will be donated to support local civic projects through our structure Barclays Solidarity.

SRI funds are they more efficient than conventional investments?

It is difficult to measure but what is certain is that SRI is more resistant in the phases of market correction and presents a more defensive profile, if uptrend. In other words, there is an outperformance in the market phases. SRI is not a barrier to the market performance. Instead, he must give value added to the fund compared to a traditional investment.The management team should also bring in funds through the performance of traditional criteria such as the revaluation of securities and its prospects.

How do you select your values?

Our management approach is based on a "best in class", that is to say that we select the best titles in their class, whatever the category. In other words, we do not exclude sectors that initially do not appear to be consistent with the ISR, such as the automotive and oil industries, for example.

While values have a real socially responsible approach, we keep them. For example, some car values are investing heavily in R & D to reduce pollution from their vehicles or oil stocks investing in renewable energy. The purpose of a product is primarily SRI performance.We believe it is unnecessary to have a debate about whether a particular value or not SRI.

Why is it your portfolio as concentrated (Barclays Alphastar SRI consists of 13 funds, Ed)?

Our portfolio consists of only 13 funds, because we were not convinced of the other approaches SRI funds, and we believe this issue to make it more readable, it is not necessary to invest in more funds . Accordingly, we are heavily invested on each line, because we have strong convictions on certain themes (sustainable development, corporate governance) that we identify as a source of added value.

Amund and Natixis are historical actors of SRI investing in this topic for many years. They have a database of the oldest of the place.We also returned UFG shares Sarasin Euro Mid-Caps, while our investment universe is large caps. The idea is to identify mid-cap stocks that are concerned with the theme of SRI, but that hardly communicate, because they do not face the same pressure as the major media values.

What is the performance of your fund?

Our fund outperformed the MSCI Europe since its creation of 1.5 basis points (-19.18% against 20.73%) and the underperformed since the beginning of the year (2.98% against 3 57%). This reflects the fact that our portfolio is too concentrated on European values. Because of the difficulties of Greece, the euro has sharply d?sappr?ci? and our portfolio with him. Thus, more than one reason for the market for a reason related to the SRI we underestimate performons index.We therefore decided to refocus on Europe in integrating the England and Switzerland in our portfolio.

That is why we returned OFI leader who is a fund invested in European companies considered in a leadership role within their industry and their competitive universe. We also selected HS Europe, which is invested in European companies also meeting the constraints on environmental, social ethics and governance. We believe that given the pressures on the euro, the single currency will continue to depreciate.

* Multi-management is a technique that selects the most experienced managers and more effective and provide access to larger customer base through a single medium (CPF unit trust or life insurance contract).

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The Paris Bourse takes a deep breath. After recording, the day before, a new annual record over 4050 points, the CAC lost 0.67% to 4026.97 points. Everywhere in Europe, investors took advantage of the strong performance of recent days to garner a share of their profits. London and Frankfurt lost 0.22% and 0.48%.

Wall Street, which also navigates the unknown peaks over 18 months, was also a break. The Dow dropped 0.24% in session and the Nasdaq is 0.20%.

The minutes of the Fed meeting on 16 March confirmed that the U.S. central bank remained committed to maintaining its policy rates "unusually low", "for a period of time."But at the same time the debate on the need to adopt a real strategy for ending the crisis is more urgent and animated.

Concerns persist about Greece

Indeed, the United States but also in Europe, signs of economic recovery are daily becoming more numerous and tangible. Yesterday, activity in the private sector in the euro area recorded in March, its strongest growth in two and a half years.

Other good news, orders to German industry, the mainstay of the economy in Germany, continue to recover. However, the foreign exchange market, the euro retreated further against the greenback falling dollar sitting in 1.335 penalized by persistent concerns about the ability of Greece to refinance its debt and the fear of contagion from the crisis to other countries in the euro zone as Portugal, Spain or Italy.In Paris, profit-taking focused on areas that have risen more in exchange for a year and particularly on banking stocks, as well as automotive and technology.

A first for a group of ACC 40.Total was indicted on 27 February by the French judge Serge Tournaire, corruption, complicity and concealment of influence peddling in the case called "oil-food cons", echoing the UN program established in 1997 for the Iraqis, when the international embargo following the invasion of Kuwait.

After the setbacks in terms of image for Total, with Erika – Total was sentenced on appeal to pay 375,000 euros – and AZF, this attack could further extend the negative perception of the French vis-?-vis the oil group .

A decision "incomprehensible"

The investigation started in 2002 had directed to various French personalities suspected of having distributed the early 2000s kickbacks to members of the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein that the group continues to source barrels of oil outside the framework imposed program of the UN oil-food cons.

Several officers and employees of the group had been indicted personally since 2006. But this time, it's Total as corporation that is under no faxing pay day loans.

"This decision (of indictment of the Total Group, NDRL) recommence the proceedings," said Master Veil, the lawyer of Total, has told AFP the date of the indictment, and thus confirmed information from the newspaper Les Echos."The judge took this decision against all odds, while his predecessor and the prosecution had held the contrary, at least implicitly," he added, saying the indictment "incomprehensible."

Total will watch his side surprised by this indictment, which "comes eight years after the commencement of the trial, with no new element has been placed on file," according to Les Echos.

Indeed, Serge Tournaire succeeded Xaviere Someone who had requested a non-place for all employees and former employees, and the boss of Total, Christophe de Margerie. In addition, Total said that "the report Volker independent commission of inquiry established by the United Nations had rejected any complaint of corruption."

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After gaining 1.12% on Wednesday following the announcement of the Bank of Japan to keep rates low, the Nikkei 225 closing displays a decline of 0.95% at 10,774 points. Regarding other areas, the results are mixed. Hong Kong gained 0.16% to 21,418 points, ahead of Taiwan 0.46% to 7883 points, Sydney rose 0.20% to 4863 points, Singapore climbed 0.16% to 2924 points. Conversely, Seoul lost 0.41% to 3538 points, Mumbai was down 0.14% at 17,464 points and Jakarta was down 0.28% at 2748 points.

Japanese carmaker Nissan (-0.78% to 768 yen) announced Thursday that it had retained its English site in Sunderland to assemble its new electric vehicle, the "Leaf", a decision that will keep 2250 jobs in Great Britain."The site of Sunderland reach a production capacity of 60,000 units per year," the company said in a statement, adding that production would begin early 2013 unsecured personal loans .The "Leaf" is the first public electric car that Nissan plans to launch late 2010 on the Japanese markets, U.S. and some European market, before a worldwide release scheduled for 2012.

Following the decision of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) to maintain its production quotas unchanged, crude prices falling Thursday in electronic trading in Asia, wiping out gains in New York, but remain at over $ 80.

In morning trading, a barrel of light sweet crude for April delivery yielded 27 cents to 82.66 dollars, while a barrel of Brent North Sea for May delivery retreated 37 cents to 81 $ 59.

The SGC of the oil industry, the majority, urged employees of the 13 refineries in the French strike Thursday, April 15, when a national roundtable on the future of refining in France, the union said in a statement Wednesday.

The union claims a "refining industry to serve the economic needs and the country's social and employment areas.

The panel of 15 April under the aegis of government, was obtained during the strike a week for employees of Total's refining industry in late February.

The Total Group announced Monday the end of its refining operations in Dunkirk, one of its six refineries in France, while maintaining the 370 jobs at the site through industrial restructuring, considered insufficient by the employees.

On Tuesday, employees of the refinery had planned to launch a new appeal for solidarity from other refineries in France group.

Total number of unions are to meet Thursday to take a common position.

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