CAC 40

The CAC 40 (French: CAC quarante [kak kaʁɑ̃t]) (Cotation Assistée en Continu) is a benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a capitalization-weighted measure of the 40 most significant stocks among the 100 largest market caps on the Euronext Paris (formerly the Paris Bourse). It is one of the main national indices of the pan-European stock exchange group Euronext alongside Brussels' BEL20, Lisbon's PSI-20 and Amsterdam's AEX.

CAC 40

CAC 40 performance since December 31, 1987, linked to "indice Insee de la Bourse de Paris' from 1965 to 1987.
Foundation	December 31, 1987
Operator	Euronext
Exchanges	Euronext Paris
Constituents	40
Type	Large cap
Market cap	€1.832 trillion (1 January 2020)[1]
Weighting method	Capitalization-weighted
Related indices	CAC Next 20, CAC Small
Website	www.euronext.com

History

The CAC 40 takes its name from the Paris Bourse's early automation system Cotation Assistée en Continu (Continuous Assisted Quotation). Its base value of 1,000 was set on 31 December 1987, equivalent to a market capitalisation of 370,437,433,957.70 French francs.[2] In common with many major world stock markets, its all-time high to date (6922.33 points) was reached at the peak of the dot-com bubble in September 2000.[3] On 1 December 2003, the index's weighting system switched from being dependent on total market capitalisation to free float market cap only, in line with other leading indices.[4]

Rules

Selection

The CAC 40 index composition is reviewed quarterly by an independent Index Steering Committee (French: Conseil Scientifique).[2] If any changes are made, they are effected a minimum of two weeks after the review meeting.[2] At each review date, the companies listed on Euronext Paris are ranked according to free float market capitalisation and share turnover over the prior 12 months.[5] From the top 100 companies in this ranking, forty are chosen to enter the CAC 40 such that it is "a relevant benchmark for portfolio management" and "a suitable underlying asset for derivatives products".[5] If a company has more than one class of shares traded on the exchange, only the most actively traded of these will be accepted into the index (generally this will be the ordinary share).[5]

Weighting

The CAC 40 is a capitalization-weighted index. The number of shares issued (used to calculate the market cap and hence the index weight) of a company is reviewed quarterly, on the third Friday of March, June, September and December.[2] Since December 2003, the index weightings of companies in the index have been capped at 15% at each quarterly index review,[5] but these range freely with share price subsequently. A capping factor is used to limit the weights to 15% (if necessary), and is reviewed annually by the Index Steering Committee on the third Friday of September.[5]

Calculation

The index value I of the CAC 40 index is calculated using the following formula:[5] ${\displaystyle I_{t}=1000\times {\frac {\sum _{i=1}^{N}Q_{i,t}\,F_{i,t}\,f_{i,t}\,C_{i,t}\,}{K_{t}\,\sum _{i=1}^{N}Q_{i,0}\,C_{i,0}\,}}}$ with t the day of calculation; N the number of constituent shares in the index (usually 40); Q_i,t the number of shares of company i on day t; F_i,t the free float factor of share i; f_i,t the capping factor of share i (exactly 1 for all companies not subject to the 15% cap); C_i,t the price of share i on day t; Q_i,0 the number of shares of company i on the index base date; C_i,0 the price of equity i on the index base date; and K_t the "adjustment coefficient for base capitalization" on day t (reflecting the switch from the French franc to the Euro in 1999).

Holders

Although the CAC 40 is almost exclusively composed of French-domiciled companies, about 45% of its listed shares are owned by foreign investors, more than any other main European index.[6] German, Japanese, American and British investors are amongst the most significant holders of CAC 40 shares. This large percentage is due to the fact that CAC 40 companies are more international, or multinational, than any other European market. CAC 40 companies conduct over two-thirds of their business and employ over two-thirds of their workforce outside France.[7]

Record values

Type	Date	Value
Closing high	September 4, 2000	6,922.33
Intraday high	September 4, 2000	6,944.77

Annual Returns

The following table shows the annual development of the CAC 40, which was calculated back to 1969.[8][9][10]

Year	Closing level	Change in Index in Points	Change in Index in %
1969	334.12
1970	310.48	−23.64	−7.08
1971	286.13	−24.35	−7.84
1972	335.18	49.05	17.14
1973	325.65	−9.53	−2.84
1974	225.45	−100.20	−30.77
1975	294.60	69.15	30.67
1976	244.50	−50.10	−17.01
1977	228.98	−15.52	−6.35
1978	335.53	106.55	46.53
1979	392.69	57.16	17.04
1980	422.39	29.70	7.56
1981	352.11	−70.28	−16.64
1982	352.82	0.71	0.20
1983	552.86	200.04	56.70
1984	640.01	87.15	15.76
1985	937.79	297.78	46.53
1986	1,403.51	465.72	49.66
1987	1,000.00	−403.51	−28.75
1988	1,573.94	573.94	57.39
1989	2,001.08	427.14	27.14
1990	1,517.93	−483.15	−24.14
1991	1,765.66	247.73	16.32
1992	1,857.80	92.14	5.22
1993	2,268.22	410.42	22.09
1994	1,881.15	−387.07	−17.06
1995	1,871.97	−9.18	−0.49
1996	2,315.73	443.76	23.71
1997	2,998.91	683.18	29.50
1998	3,942.66	943.75	31.47
1999	5,858.32	1,915.66	48.59
2000	5,926.42	68.10	1.16
2001	4,624.58	−1,301.84	−21.97
2002	3,063.91	−1,560.67	−33.75
2003	3,557.90	493.99	16.12
2004	3,821.16	263.26	7.40
2005	4,715.23	894.07	23.40
2006	5,541.76	826.53	17.53
2007	5,614.08	72.32	1.31
2008	3,217.97	−2,396.11	−42.68
2009	3,936.33	718.36	22.32
2010	3,804.78	−131.55	−3.34
2011	3,159.81	−644.97	−16.95
2012	3,641.07	481.26	15.23
2013	4,295.95	654.88	17.99
2014	4,272.75	−23.20	−0.54
2015	4,637.06	364.31	8.53
2016	4,862.31	225.25	4.86
2017	5,312.56	450.25	9.26
2018	4,730.69	−581.87	−10.95
2019	5,978.06	1,247.37	26.37

Composition

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Peugeot 508, manufactured by Peugeot part of PSA group.

Alpine A110, manufactured by Alpine part of Renault group.

CFM56 turbofan engine, manufactured by Safran.

Pont de Normandie, built by Bouygues and Vinci, the largest construction company in the world by revenue.

The index consists of the following companies as of the quarterly update effective May 2020.

The most recent composition can be found on euronext website.

Company	Sector	Ticker
Accor	hotels	AC.PA
Air Liquide	commodity chemicals	AI.PA
Airbus	aerospace	AIR.PA
ArcelorMittal	steel	MT.AS
Atos	IT services	ATO.PA
AXA	full line insurance	CS.PA
BNP Paribas	banks	BNP.PA
Bouygues	heavy construction	EN.PA
Capgemini	IT services	CAP.PA
Carrefour	food retailers and wholesalers	CA.PA
Crédit Agricole	banks	ACA.PA
Danone	food products	BN.PA
Dassault Systèmes	software	DSY.PA
Engie	gas and electric utility	ENGI.PA
Essilor	medical supplies	EL.PA
Hermès	clothing and accessories	RMS.PA
Kering	retail business	KER.PA
L'Oréal	personal products	OR.PA
Legrand	electrical components and equipment	LR.PA
LVMH	clothing and accessories	MC.PA
Michelin	tires	ML.PA
Orange	telecommunications	ORA.PA
Pernod Ricard	distillers and vintners	RI.PA
PSA	automobiles	UG.PA
Publicis	media agencies	PUB.PA
Renault	automobiles	RNO.PA
Safran	aerospace and defence	SAF.PA
Saint-Gobain	building materials and fixtures	SGO.PA
Sanofi	pharmaceuticals	SAN.PA
Schneider Electric	electrical components and equipment	SU.PA
Société Générale	banks	GLE.PA
Sodexo	food services and facilities management	SW.PA
STMicroelectronics	Semiconductors	STM.PA
Thales	defense	HO.PA
Total	integrated oil and gas	FP.PA
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield	real estate investment trusts	URW.AS
Veolia	water, waste, transport, energy	VIE.PA
Vinci	heavy construction	DG.PA
Vivendi	broadcasting and entertainment	VIV.PA
Worldline (fr)	IT services	WLN.PA

See also

• Category:CAC 40
• CAC Next 20
• List of French companies
• List of largest French companies

References

1. "CAC 40". boursier.com. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
2. "CAC 40 index profile". Euronext. Archived from the original on 9 December 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
3. "Investors celebrate stock market boom". BBC News. 31 December 2003. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
4. "CAC40 shift to free-float weighting: revision of free-float calculation and capping factors" (Press release). Euronext. 5 November 2003. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
5. "Rules for the CAC 40 Index" (PDF). Euronext. January 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2009.
6. Chirac, Jacques (24 March 2006). "Press conference given by M. Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic, following the European Council (excerpts)". Archived from the original on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
7. Lagarde, Christine (6 May 2006). ""France and Globalization": Lecture Given by Mme Christine Lagarde, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, to The Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Lille (excerpts)". Retrieved 3 December 2007.
8. "RND". www.hec.unil.ch. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
9. "CAC 40 Index (France) Yearly Stock Returns". www.1stock1.com. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
10. "CAC 40 (^FCHI) Historical Data - Yahoo Finance". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 21 January 2020.

External links

• Official Euronext page for CAC 40 Index
• FCHI: Summary for CAC 40 INDEX - Yahoo! Finance
• Bloomberg page for CAC:IND