Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Foods & Drugs, General Retailers and Real Estate sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 rose 1.47% to hit a new 1-month high, while the SBF 120 index added 1.40%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Orange SA (PARIS:ORAN), which rose 3.45% or 0.52 points to trade at 15.43 at the close. Carrefour SA (PARIS:CARR) added 2.79% or 0.84 points to end at 30.97 and Bouygues SA (PARIS:BOUY) was up 2.57% or 0.83 points to 33.12 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Alcatel Lucent SA (PARIS:ALUA), which lost 0.43% or 0.014 points to trade at 3.256 in late trade. Technip (PARIS:TECF) declined 0.08% or 0.04 points to end at 51.12 and ArcelorMittal SA (AMS:ISPA) shed 0.07% or 0.01 points to 8.31.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Ipsos (PARIS:ISOS) which rose 5.69% to 25.00, Plastic Omnium (PARIS:PLOF) which was up 3.67% to settle at 23.75 and Orange SA (PARIS:ORAN) which gained 3.45% to close at 15.43.
The worst performers were Gemalto (AMS:GTO) which was down 5.03% to 78.95 in late trade, Innate Pharma (PARIS:IPH) which lost 2.56% to settle at 15.200 and Biomerieux (PARIS:BIOX) which was down 2.18% to 100.90 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 675 to 250 and 43 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 9.24% to 18.04 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.32% or 3.70 to $1143.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.19% or 0.10 to hit $51.31 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.34% or 0.20 to trade at $57.31 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.68% to 1.0876, while EUR/GBP fell 0.44% to 0.6971.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.50% at 97.78.