Paris - Buoyed by a strong Wall Street showing and the French government's announcment on a capital injection for its banks, shares in Paris were up sharply in early trading on Tuesday.

One hour after opening, the benchmark CAC 40 gained 2.56 per cent, to 3,536.76, with gainers outnumbering decliners by nearly 6 to 1.

Banking stocks led the surge after the French government announced late Monday that it would inject 10.5 billion euros (14 billion dollars) into the country's six-largest financial institutions by the end of the year.

Grasse, France (dpa) - Perfume's first city of Grasse in southern France has reopened the doors of its fragrance museum, four years after they were shuttered for renovations.

The International Perfume Museum is bigger and better than ever after extensive renovations and enlargement. It now has double the floor space and a beautiful new glass gallery with a view of the Esterel mountains.

Of the museum's 50,000 items, 3,500 are now on display. The overhaul cost the city and surrounding province 14 million euros (18.81 million dollars).

Paris - French shares made strong gains on Monday, closing on the day's high, despite weakness among banking and environmental stocks.

The Paris Bourse's CAC 40 blue-chip index ended the day up 3.56 per cent, at 3,448.51, as advancing issues outpaced fallers by better than 3 to 1.

The winners were led by energy supplier GDF Suez, which was up 12.39 per cent, to 33.03 euros, while another utility, EDF, gained 8.25 per cent, to 44.83 euros.

Paris - French shares were holding on to gains in mid-afternoon trading on Monday but banking and environmental stocks continued to lose ground.

The Paris Bourse's CAC 40 blue-chip index was up 1.45 per cent, to 3,378.27, with advancing issues outpacing fallers by 3 to 1.

The winners were led by energy supplier GDF Suez, which was up 9.44 per cent, to 32.16 euros, while French-American telecommunications supplier Alcatel-Lucent rose 
8.33 per cent, to 2.04 euros.

Paris - French shares were holding on to gains in early trading Monday but banking and environmental stocks were losing ground.

The Paris Bourse's CAC 40 blue-chip index was up 1.12 per cent, to 3,367.25, at mid-morning, with advancing issues outpacing fallers by 3 to 1.

The winners were led by three energy stocks, with energy suppliers GDF Suez and EDF up by 7.32 and 5.4 per cent, respectively, and oil giant Total gaining 5.28 per cent, on rising oil prices.

Veolia Environnement was down more than 16 per cent and Suez Environnment had lost 10 per cent because the finance crisis and imminent recession were dissuading European countries from undertaking planned ecological measures.