Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Industrial Transportation, Healthcare Equipment & Services and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.29%, while the SBF 120 index added 0.38%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were EDF (PARIS:EDF), which rose 2.66% or 0.56 points to trade at 21.43 at the close. Bouygues (PARIS:BOUY) added 1.43% or 0.46 points to end at 32.29 and Veolia Environnement (PARIS:VIE) was up 1.31% or 0.255 points to 19.700 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Schneider Electric (PARIS:SCHN), which lost 2.14% or 1.37 points to trade at 62.65 in late trade. Technip (PARIS:TECF) declined 1.14% or 0.59 points to end at 51.16 and Kering (PARIS:PRTP) shed 0.94% or 1.55 points to 163.85.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Innate Pharma (PARIS:IPH) which rose 9.47% to 15.600, Rubis (PARIS:RUBF) which was up 4.05% to settle at 68.14 and Elior (PARIS:ELIOR) which gained 3.89% to close at 19.77.
The worst performers were Vallourec (PARIS:VLLP) which was down 2.64% to 16.61 in late trade, CGG (PARIS:GEPH) which lost 2.31% to settle at 4.48 and Rexel (PARIS:RXL) which was down 2.27% to 14.63 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 522 to 284 and 59 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 3.02% to 19.88 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.68% or 7.80 to $1145.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 2.45% or 1.30 to hit $51.74 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.97% or 1.16 to trade at $57.52 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.45% to 1.0959, while EUR/GBP fell 0.49% to 0.7006.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.45% at 97.24.