Paris - Buoyed by the intervention of major central banks in foreign exchange markets, French shares on Thursday were resisting the downward pull created by Wednesday's Wall Street sell-off.

One hour after opening, the Paris Bourse's benchmark CAC 40 was up 0.19 per cent, at 4,007.60. Shortly after trading began, the CAC 40 sank to its lowest level in three years before recovering.

The resistance was led by Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, which gained 5 per cent to 8.64 euros. French bank BNP Paribas was up 2.16 per cent, at 57.40 euros.

Paris - After opening sharply higher in the wake of the US Federal Reserve's bail-out of insurance giant AIG, French shares were pulled into the red on Wednesday by a weak Wall Street, ending the session at a low for the year.

The Paris Bourse's benchmark CAC 40 closed off by 2.14 per cent, at 4.000.11, with losers outnumbering winners by 13 to 1.

The losers were led by troubled Franco-American telecoms equipment supplier Alcatel-Lucent, which slumped by 8.51 per cent, to 3.15 euros, and steel producer Arcelor-Mittal, which lost 7.96 per cent, to 39.67 euros.

Buoyed by the AIG rescue, insurance giant Axa was one of the session's bright lights, gaining 0.30 per cent, to 19.82 euros.

London - Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, singer, former top model and First Lady of France, enhanced her celebrity status in Britain even further with a performance on BBC television in which she revealed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy takes kindly to being woken at night by her music.

"I play it at home and I disturb him with it in the middle of the night," the 40-year-old told fellow-musician and TV host Jools Holland on BBC 2 Tuesday evening.

Bruni-Sarkozy performed Tu Es Ma Came from her recent hit album, translating the title into English as meaning "You're my junk, you're my type, you're my cup of tea."

Paris - France on Tuesday joined the United States in calling for additional sanctions against Iran after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Monday that Teheran was continuing to expand its uranium enrichment programme.

"We have no other choice but to draw up another UN Security Council resolution on sanctions in the coming days and weeks," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevalier said.

Chevalier described as "very worrying" the fact that Iranian authorities had not replied to questions regarding matters that could be related to the development of nuclear weapons.

Paris - The day after Wall Street posted its worst loss since 2001, French shares were down only moderately on Tuesday, with bank stocks again leading the losers.

One hour after the opening of the Paris Bourse, shares in its benchmark CAC 40 were down 1.39 per cent, to stand at 4,111.06.

Belgian bank Dexia, which owns 500 million euros (709 million dollars) in unsecured bonds of the bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers, led the way down, losing nearly 5 per cent of its value.

Paris - Caught up in the turmoil caused by the collapse of US investment bank Lehmann Brothers, the Paris Bourse lost nearly 5 per cent of its value by mid-afternoon on Monday, led downward by weak banking shares.

The big losers for the day were the banks Credit Agricole and Societe Generale, which were down 13.79 and 12.51 per cent, respectively.

For the year, Credit Agricole - France's largest retail banking group and the second largest in Europe - has lost more than 43 per cent of its value.

The shares of two other banks, Dexia and BNP Paribas, fell by 12.10 and 11.54 per cent, while insurance giant Axa lost 11.53 per cent of ts value.