CAC 40 Marginally Higher In Choppy Trade

(RTTNews) - French shares lacked direction in choppy trade on Thursday as the G7 meeting of finance ministers in Japan got underway and oil prices breached the $50 a barrel mark for the first time since November.

Amid lack of key triggers, investors await a slew of U.S. economic reports due later in the day and a speech by Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen on Friday for clues to the U.S. rate outlook.

The benchmark CAC 40 index was up 4 points or 0.08 percent at 4,485 in late opening deals after rising 1.1 percent on Wednesday.

Among the prominent gainers, Accor, Total SA, Valeo, Renault and Technip rose about 1 percent each.

AXA Group shares traded flat. The insurer said it would sell all its equity holdings in tobacco immediately, representing just over 180 million euros.

On a relatively light day on the economic front, official data showed that the U.K. economy expanded as initially estimated in the first quarter.

Gross domestic product grew 0.4 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, unrevised from the estimate published on April 27. On an annual basis, GDP climbed 2 percent instead of 2.1 percent estimated previously.