Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Banking, Financials and Automobiles & Parts sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 added 2.55%, while the SBF 120 index gained 2.44%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Credit Agricole (PARIS:CAGR), which rose 4.14% or 0.525 points to trade at 13.200 at the close. Cap Gemini (PARIS:CAPP) added 3.89% or 3.09 points to end at 82.50 and Peugeot SA (PARIS:PEUP) was up 3.78% or 0.65 points to 17.86 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Alstom (PARIS:ALSO), which lost 0.31% or 0.08 points to trade at 25.50 in late trade. Bouygues (PARIS:BOUY) added 0.32% or 0.10 points to end at 31.09 and Arcelormittal (AMS:ISPA) gained 0.53% or 0.04 points to 8.17.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Solocal Group (PARIS:LOCAL) which rose 7.23% to 0.430, Technicolor (PARIS:TCH) which was up 5.84% to settle at 5.852 and Natixis (PARIS:CNAT) which gained 4.94% to close at 6.476.
The worst performers were Alstom (PARIS:ALSO) which was down 0.31% to 25.50 in late trade, Euler Hermes (PARIS:ELER) which lost 0.10% to settle at 91.00 and Eramet (PARIS:ERMT) which was down 0.08% to 62.45 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 620 to 174 and 56 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 2.52% to 31.49.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.30% or 3.50 to $1160.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 2.71% or 1.40 to hit $53.05 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 3.44% or 1.97 to trade at $59.02 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.56% to 1.1015, while EUR/GBP fell 0.59% to 0.7170.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.42% at 96.79.