What is the name of the French stock market index?

The French stock market index is the CAC 40.

CAC 40 stands for Cotation Assistée en Continu, a French phrase meaning “continuous assisted quotation.” It is the benchmark index for major shares traded on Euronext Paris and is commonly used as a snapshot of France’s large-company stock market.

The index contains 40 companies selected from the 100 firms with the largest market capitalizations and the most actively traded shares on Euronext Paris. Its constituents span industries such as luxury goods, banking, energy, automobiles, aerospace, and pharmaceuticals, making it a broad gauge of prominent French-listed businesses.

The CAC 40 began with a base value of 1,000 on December 31, 1987. It is weighted by free-float market capitalization, meaning companies receive weight according to the value of shares actually available for public trading. It is often confused with Germany’s DAX, Britain’s FTSE 100, and America’s S&P 500, which are national-market counterparts.