Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials, Utilities and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 1.77%, while the SBF 120 index climbed 1.80%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Renault SA (PA:RENA), which rose 5.73% or 3.77 points to trade at 69.57 at the close. Credit Agricole SA (PA:CAGR) added 5.62% or 0.401 points to end at 7.541 and ArcelorMittal SA (AS:ISPA) was up 5.33% or 0.226 points to 4.469 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Danone SA (PA:DANO), which lost 0.71% or 0.46 points to trade at 64.04 in late trade. Air Liquide SA (PA:AIRP) declined 0.10% or 0.09 points to end at 89.87 and Airbus Group (PA:AIR) shed 0.04% or 0.02 points to 49.03.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Ipsos (PA:ISOS) which rose 13.55% to 29.00, Neopost (PA:NPOS) which was up 7.16% to settle at 22.89 and Lagardere S.C.A. (PA:LAGA) which gained 6.38% to close at 20.76.
The worst performers were Danone SA (PA:DANO) which was down 0.71% to 64.04 in late trade, Sartorius Stedim Biotech (PA:STDM) which lost 0.43% to settle at 60.00 and SES (PA:SESFd) which was down 0.34% to 18.98 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 452 to 199 and 109 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 9.37% to 22.11 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.41% or 5.60 to $1356.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.31% or 0.14 to hit $45.28 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.47% or 0.22 to trade at $46.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.16% to 1.1046, while EUR/GBP fell 0.42% to 0.8532.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.07% at 96.40.