Carrefour cuts forecast as French unrest hits stores

Carrefour lowered its full-year forecasts on Tuesday, saying France's worsening social and security situation was hurting consumer sentiment, raising operating costs and reducing store traffic under curfews.

The French supermarket chain said it now expects adjusted earnings per share to be stable or grow only slightly from last year's 1.60 euros. It had previously forecast high single-digit growth.

Carrefour also said net free cash flow was expected to decline slightly from 1.3 billion euros, or $1.45 billion, last year, instead of rising slightly.

The company reported total third-quarter sales including petrol of nearly 22.7 billion euros, up 3.9 percent from a year earlier. Sales in France rose 2.2 percent. Carrefour linked the forecast cut to conditions after weekend cost-of-living protests were hijacked by rioters.