Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Utilities and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.26%, while the SBF 120 index added 0.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Technip (PA:TECF), which rose 7.57% or 3.82 points to trade at 54.25 at the close. Total SA (PA:TOTF) added 4.15% or 1.70 points to end at 42.67 and ArcelorMittal SA (AS:ISPA) was up 2.29% or 0.124 points to 5.550 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Essilor International Compagnie Generale d’Optique SA (PA:ESSI), which lost 1.88% or 2.20 points to trade at 114.55 in late trade. Publicis Groupe SA (PA:PUBP) declined 1.19% or 0.81 points to end at 67.27 and Kering SA (PA:PRTP) shed 1.17% or 2.10 points to 177.40.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were CGG SA (PA:GEPH) which rose 11.41% to 22.9500, Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which was up 9.65% to settle at 4.055 and Neopost (PA:NPOS) which gained 8.05% to close at 24.03.
The worst performers were Gemalto (AS:GTO) which was down 4.76% to 56.85 in late trade, STMicroelectronics (PA:STM) which lost 3.41% to settle at 6.990 and Ipsos (PA:ISOS) which was down 3.13% to 29.06 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 339 to 315 and 124 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 1.97% to 19.39.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.08% or 1.05 to $1322.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 2.49% or 1.17 to hit $48.22 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 2.23% or 1.10 to trade at $50.34 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.24% to 1.1245, while EUR/GBP rose 0.43% to 0.8655.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 95.27.