Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gas & Water, Utilities and Foods & Drugs sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.27%, while the SBF 120 index added 0.21%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Orange SA (PARIS:ORAN), which rose 1.86% or 0.25 points to trade at 13.69 at the close. Veolia Environnement (PARIS:VIE) added 1.20% or 0.215 points to end at 18.105 and Vinci SA (PARIS:SGEF) was up 1.20% or 0.61 points to 51.60 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Valeo (PARIS:VLOF), which lost 2.13% or 2.95 points to trade at 135.45 in late trade. Arcelormittal (AMS:ISPA) declined 1.96% or 0.18 points to end at 9.15 and Renault SA (PARIS:RENA) shed 1.18% or 1.08 points to 90.66.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Suez Environnement (PARIS:SEVI) which rose 2.73% to 17.150, Gemalto (AMS:GTO) which was up 2.02% to settle at 81.67 and Remy Cointreau (PARIS:RCOP) which gained 1.94% to close at 67.33.
The worst performers were Eurofins Scientific (PARIS:EUFI) which was down 4.17% to 253.00 in late trade, CGG (PARIS:GEPH) which lost 3.49% to settle at 5.67 and Altran Technologies (PARIS:ALTT) which was down 2.14% to 9.375 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 557 to 346 and 48 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 0.09% to 27.08.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 1.96% or 23.10 to $1199.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.75% or 0.45 to hit $60.78 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.84% or 0.54 to trade at $64.41 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.58% to 1.1403, while EUR/GBP rose 0.35% to 0.7185.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.43% at 94.07.