Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Basic Materials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 1.49%, while the SBF 120 index gained 1.32%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were ArcelorMittal SA (AS:ISPA), which rose 10.49% or 0.615 points to trade at 6.480 at the close. Sanofi SA (PA:SASY) added 5.84% or 4.26 points to end at 77.15 and AXA SA (PA:AXAF) was up 4.60% or 0.94 points to 21.28 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Renault SA (PA:RENA), which lost 2.12% or 1.63 points to trade at 75.40 in late trade. Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) declined 1.96% or 0.26 points to end at 12.75 and Publicis Groupe SA (PA:PUBP) shed 1.94% or 1.17 points to 59.19.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which rose 10.73% to 4.560, ArcelorMittal SA (AS:ISPA) which was up 10.49% to settle at 6.480 and Alstom SA (PA:ALSO) which gained 9.04% to close at 25.88.
The worst performers were Teleperformance (PA:ROCH) which was down 5.96% to 86.85 in late trade, Euronext (PA:ENX) which lost 5.27% to settle at 33.31 and CGG SA (PA:GEPH) which was down 3.44% to 15.9800 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 351 to 334 and 111 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 14.12% to 19.97.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.30% or 3.80 to $1278.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 1.53% or 0.69 to hit $45.67 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 1.35% or 0.62 to trade at $46.66 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.82% to 1.0936, while EUR/GBP fell 1.28% to 0.8790.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.57% at 98.44.