Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrial Transportation, Health Care Equipment & Services Financial and Electronic Equipment sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 rose 0.71% to hit a new 5-year high, while the SBF 120 index gained 0.68%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Cap Gemini (PARIS:CAPP), which rose 4.86% or 3.15 points to trade at 67.99 at the close. Essilor International (PARIS:ESSI) added 4.33% or 4.17 points to end at 100.50 and Orange SA (PARIS:ORAN) was up 2.75% or 0.42 points to 15.86 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Total SA (PARIS:TOTF), which lost 2.72% or 1.28 points to trade at 45.98 in late trade. Arcelormittal (AMS:ISPA) declined 2.17% or 0.21 points to end at 9.67 and Technip (PARIS:TECF) shed 1.16% or 0.69 points to 58.90.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Genfit (PARIS:GNFT) which rose 6.39% to 67.550, Bollore (PARIS:BOLL) which was up 5.56% to settle at 4.84 and Cap Gemini (PARIS:CAPP) which gained 4.86% to close at 67.99.
The worst performers were Technicolor (PARIS:TCH) which was down 5.63% to 5.436 in late trade, Atos (PARIS:ATOS) which lost 5.06% to settle at 64.32 and Air France KLM SA (PARIS:AIRF) which was down 5.02% to 7.208 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 547 to 362 and 59 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 2.12% to 20.34.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.76% or 9.10 to $1209.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April fell 2.22% or 1.17 to hit $51.65 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract fell 1.00% or 0.60 to trade at $59.92 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.21% to 1.1373, while EUR/GBP fell 0.18% to 0.7370.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.29% at 94.41.