Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Automobiles & Parts, Aerospace & Defense and Banks sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 rose 0.99%, while the SBF 120 index added 0.89%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Renault SA (PARIS:RENA), which rose 2.23% or 1.85 points to trade at 84.94 at the close. Valeo (PARIS:VLOF) added 2.19% or 2.85 points to end at 132.70 and Airbus Group (PARIS:AIR) was up 2.02% or 1.12 points to 56.52 in late trade.
Biggest losers included EDF (PARIS:EDF), which lost 2.79% or 0.68 points to trade at 23.66 in late trade. Technip (PARIS:TECF) declined 1.00% or 0.59 points to end at 58.41 and Arcelormittal (AMS:ISPA) shed 0.93% or 0.09 points to 9.53.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Genfit (PARIS:GNFT) which rose 7.18% to 63.440, Peugeot SA (PARIS:PEUP) which was up 3.97% to settle at 15.18 and Euler Hermes (PARIS:ELER) which gained 3.42% to close at 99.96.
The worst performers were CGG (PARIS:GEPH) which was down 4.38% to 6.18 in late trade, EDF (PARIS:EDF) which lost 2.79% to settle at 23.66 and Eurofins Scientific (PARIS:EUFI) which was down 1.56% to 239.15 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 466 to 436 and 61 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 4.14% to 17.29.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.29% or 3.50 to $1200.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April fell 0.20% or 0.10 to hit $50.42 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract fell 0.78% or 0.47 to trade at $60.55 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.93% to 1.1073, while EUR/GBP fell 0.25% to 0.7256.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.57% at 96.00.