The Paris Bourse closed the session with a gain of 1.19%, at 7400 points, driven in particular by Eurofins (+2.9%), URW (+2.3%) and EssilorLuxottica (+2.3%).

The Paris index posted a weekly gain of almost 3.5%, representing a 14.5% increase since the start of the year.

The session - the last of the month, quarter and half-year - is punctuated by a whole series of macroeconomic publications, starting with the first eurozone inflation figures for June.

The eurozone's annual inflation rate is estimated at 5.5% in June 2023, a marked deceleration after the 6.1% rise observed in May, according to a flash estimate published by Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office.

In France, inflation continues to contract at +4.5%, marking a marked slowdown after the +5.1% rate observed the previous month.

In addition, in May 2023, again in France, household consumption expenditure on goods increased by 0.5% over one month in volume terms, following a 0.8% fall in April (revised by +0.2 points compared with the initial estimate), according to Insee's CVS-CJO data.

Across the Atlantic, still on the statistics front, the Commerce Department announced that the PCE price index excluding food and energy - the Fed's preferred measure of inflation - had risen by 4.6% in May, compared with 4.7% in April, bringing the overall rate down to 3.8%, a 2:1 division in 1 year.

The sequential rise was only 0.1%, a sharper-than-expected slowdown: the disinflation cycle continues, but the Fed's monetary tightening cycle is not over, thanks to very robust real estate figures and a resilient labor market.

As an indication, traders are now predicting a 25 basis point Fed rate hike next month with a probability of 86.8%, versus a probability of 89.3% prior to the release of these figures.

Against this backdrop, the dollar erased its recent gains against the euro in reaction to this statistic, bringing the single currency down to $1.0915/euro.

In French stock news, Sodexo posted third-quarter sales for fiscal 2023 of 6.03 billion euros, up 9.1%, with organic growth of 10.5% but slightly negative currency and scope effects.

Engie announces that it has revised upwards its net recurring profit target for 2023 to between 4.7 and 5.3 billion euros, instead of 'in the upper half of the range of 3.4 to four billion'.

Stellantis announced on Friday that it would invest in Australian-Norwegian company Kuniko to secure its supply of low-carbon nickel and cobalt sulfate.

Lastly, Genfit shares gained nearly 25% in the morning following the publication of encouraging results from a Phase III clinical trial, but ended the session down by more than 8%.

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