Even though Macron won with an even bigger margin than projected by the opinion polls, taking almost twice as many votes as Front National leader Le Pen, the CAC 40, France’s main stock index, was 1% down during afternoon trading.
The index had risen 8% since the first round of the election on Sunday 21 April, as it was increasingly pricing in a victory of the market-friendly Macron.
Same story for the euro, which surpassed the $1.10 mark for the first time in six months on Friday, before easing back to $1.095 on Monday.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index was also trading slightly lower on Monday afternoon, and French government bond spreads were at the same level as a week ago.
The fallback in Europe’s key blue-chip index did not come as much of a surprise to commentators who viewed Emmanuel Macron’s victory as already sufficiently priced in.
Bullish investors
But following Marine Le Pen’s failure to secure the presidency, many investors have become even more bullish towards the region, arguing that now was the time to focus on improving fundamentals.
“In a context of positive but moderate worldwide growth, the eurozone is showing a positive dynamic linked to the fact that it is still in the middle of the growth cycle begun in 2013,” said SYZ Asset Management chief economist Adrien Pichoud.
“The deflationary fears are dissipating and this is fuelling a debate over a gradual phasing out of the ultra-accommodating monetary policies put in place by the ECB over the past few years.
“Under these circumstances, the coming months should witness significant movements on the financial markets, even though the immediate impact of the election of Macron is expected to be limited, given the extent to which the markets had already anticipated this outcome pursuant to the first round.”
