Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Aerospace & Defense, Pharmaceuticals & Biotech and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 fell 2.53%, while the SBF 120 index declined 2.33%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Alcatel-Lucent (PARIS:ALUA), which fell 0.44% or 0.016 points to trade at 3.643 at the close. Pernod Ricard (PARIS:PERP) fell 0.62% or 0.70 points to end at 112.55 and Technip (PARIS:TECF) was down 0.81% or 0.49 points to 60.09 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Airbus Group (PARIS:AIR), which lost 4.08% or 2.64 points to trade at 62.00 in late trade. AXA SA (PARIS:AXAF) declined 3.50% or 0.83 points to end at 22.91 and Safran (PARIS:SAF) shed 3.48% or 2.32 points to 64.41.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Elior (PARIS:ELIOR) which rose 1.53% to 16.61, Hermes International SCA (PARIS:HRMS) which was up 1.47% to settle at 355.65 and GTT (PARIS:GTT) which gained 1.24% to close at 56.23.
The worst performers were Soitec (PARIS:SOIT) which was down 6.02% to 0.780 in late trade, Euler Hermes (PARIS:ELER) which lost 4.18% to settle at 100.80 and Airbus Group (PARIS:AIR) which was down 4.08% to 62.00 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 675 to 220 and 60 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 7.94% to 22.48.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.06% or 0.70 to $1189.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 3.57% or 2.06 to hit $59.74 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 3.64% or 2.27 to trade at $64.86 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.28% to 1.0979, while EUR/GBP rose 0.65% to 0.7194.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.08% at 97.05.