(RTTNews) - French stocks traded higher on Friday, as encouraging bank earnings outweighed weak data showing that France's industrial production declined unexpectedly in March after rebounding in the previous month.
Industrial output dropped 0.3 percent on a monthly basis, reversing a 0.2 percent rise in the previous month, according to data from the statistical office INSEE. Economists had expected a 0.3 percent increase.
Similarly, manufacturing output contracted 0.5 percent in March, in contrast to a 1.0 percent rise in February, which was the biggest rise in nine months.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 41 points, or half a percent, at 7,956 after falling 0.9 percent the previous day.
Credit Agricole jumped 3.6 percent after the country's second-biggest listed bank posted a forecast-beating 55 percent jump in first-quarter net profit.
Rival Societe Generale soared 4.4 percent as it backed guidance after reporting a smaller-than-expected 22 percent slide in first-quarter net income.
