France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 0.62%

© Reuters. France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 0.62%

Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Financials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.62% to hit a new 6-month high, while the SBF 120 index gained 0.51%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were ArcelorMittal SA (AS:MT), which rose 4.13% or 0.845 points to trade at 21.285 at the close. Valeo SA (PA:VLOF) added 3.26% or 1.00 points to end at 31.65 and EssilorLuxottica SA (PA:ESLX) was up 3.23% or 3.35 points to 107.10 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Sanofi SA (PA:SASY), which lost 2.72% or 2.04 points to trade at 73.06 in late trade. Carrefour SA (PA:CARR) declined 1.38% or 0.23 points to end at 16.77 and WFD Unibail Rodamco NV (AS:URW) shed 0.89% or 1.40 points to 155.10.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which rose 13.21% to 2.400, Tarkett (PA:TKTT) which was up 9.88% to settle at 20.24 and Maisons du Monde SAS (PA:MDM) which gained 6.68% to close at 19.470.

The worst performers were GTT (PA:GTT) which was down 5.37% to 82.80 in late trade, Sartorius Stedim Biotech SA (PA:STDM) which lost 5.17% to settle at 106.40 and Biomerieux SA (PA:BIOX) which was down 3.83% to 72.80 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 314 to 264 and 83 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 0.79% to 11.73.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.13% or 1.65 to $1275.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $64.06 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.10 to trade at $71.82 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.15% to 1.1297, while EUR/GBP rose 0.24% to 0.8665.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 96.670.