Paris — Emmanuel Macron, the frontrunner in the French presidential race, has been derided by his opponent as an ally of the banking industry. For investors, that sounds like an endorsement. Should he win on Sunday, the 39-year-old former economy minister who previously worked at Rothschild & Cie would be the first ex-banker to reach the Élysée Palace since Georges Pompidou in 1969. By contrast, current President François Hollande declared finance his "true adversary" when he ran in 2012. Macron "understands that free markets and capitalism are the way that wealth is created for your country", said David Herro, chief investment officer of Harris Associates, a top-10 shareholder in BNP Paribas, the largest French bank. "That in itself is a plus for a French leader." A surge in banking shares helped lift France’s benchmark CAC 40 index to a nine-year high after Macron won the first round of presidential voting on April 23, all but eliminating the risk of a French withdrawal from the e...
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