Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the General Financial, Media and Pharmaceuticals & Biotech sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 declined 0.72%, while the SBF 120 index lost 0.79%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Total SA (PARIS:TOTF), which rose 1.10% or 0.50 points to trade at 45.80 at the close. Engie SA (PARIS:ENGIE) added 0.90% or 0.16 points to end at 17.91 and Valeo SA (PARIS:VLOF) was up 0.75% or 0.95 points to 127.45 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Compagnie de Saint Gobain SA (PARIS:SGOB), which lost 2.06% or 0.92 points to trade at 43.56 in late trade. Sanofi SA (PARIS:SASY) declined 2.05% or 2.06 points to end at 98.24 and Orange SA (PARIS:ORAN) shed 1.83% or 0.28 points to 14.98.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Sopra Steria Group SA (PARIS:SOPR) which rose 2.07% to 99.05, Vallourec (PARIS:VLLP) which was up 1.60% to settle at 13.37 and Ipsen (PARIS:IPN) which gained 1.58% to close at 59.93.
The worst performers were Havas (PARIS:HAVA) which was down 4.04% to 7.610 in late trade, Natixis (PARIS:CNAT) which lost 3.91% to settle at 6.384 and Numericable Pr (PARIS:NUME) which was down 3.91% to 49.455 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 557 to 239 and 71 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 2.15% to 17.57.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.36% or 3.90 to $1094.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.94% or 0.42 to hit $44.24 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.02% or 0.51 to trade at $49.02 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.43% to 1.0971, while EUR/GBP rose 0.68% to 0.7089.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.24% at 97.64.