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French shares reacted

to BoF 60 pt basis

PARIS: French shares barely reacted to the Bank of France's 60 basis point cut in the five-to-10 days lending rate to 4.90 percent at its money market tender.

The Bank left the intervention rate unchanged at 3.70 percent.

Traders said the market had been looking for at least 10 basis points off the intervention rate, following last week's 1/2 percentage point reduction by the Bundesbank.

CAC-40 index down 7.64, or 0.36 percent, at 2,114.46.

CAC-40 April futures 2,114.5 vs 2,120 at Wednesday's close.

Of CAC-40 stocks, 10 higher, 29 lower, one unchanged.

Broader SBF 120 index down 5.21 at 1,480.41.

Volume was 2.5 billion francs, including several block trades.

* Accor down after reporting 1995 results on Wednesday after the bourse close. Investors were disappointed by the proportion of exceptionals in the profit rise and by the company's proposal to acquire the rest of IBL that it does not own through a share swap that will slightly dilute EPS in 1996.

* Valeo holds on to most of Wednesday's two percent gain on renewed takeover speculation.

Italian industrialist Carlo De Benedetti's French holding company Cerus (-4/101) said on Wednesday it would examine offers for its 28 percent stake in Valeo if the price were right. But it said it was not feeling rushed to make a sale.

Both shares rose sharply on Wednesday.

"Valeo is holding up pretty well. Everyone's waiting for a deal, but it could take a long time", one trader said.

* A block of 414,000 shares in Societe Generale representing 0.47 percent of the capital, was traded on the bourse at 564 francs at 1133 GMT, dealers said.

* Traders said the market's sluggishness on Thursday was not a bad sign. "There's a feeling the market needs to consolidate before taking off again. We've reached all the objectives people had set", one trader said.

The CAC index has risen around seven percent this month to its highest levels of the year.-Reuter