Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.31% to hit a new 6-month high, while the SBF 120 index gained 0.30%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Schneider Electric SE (PA:SCHN), which rose 2.72% or 2.04 points to trade at 77.00 at the close. Valeo SA (PA:VLOF) added 2.43% or 0.77 points to end at 32.42 and Publicis Groupe SA (PA:PUBP) was up 1.54% or 0.78 points to 51.58 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Kering SA (PA:PRTP), which lost 5.04% or 27.10 points to trade at 510.40 in late trade. ArcelorMittal SA (AS:MT) declined 1.15% or 0.245 points to end at 21.040 and Pernod Ricard SA (PA:PERP) shed 1.06% or 1.65 points to 154.70.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Soitec SA (PA:SOIT) which rose 10.23% to 92.150, Vicat (PA:VCTP) which was up 5.63% to settle at 49.75 and Groupe FNAC (PA:FNAC) which gained 4.37% to close at 76.450.
The worst performers were Kering SA (PA:PRTP) which was down 5.04% to 510.40 in late trade, Ipsen SA (PA:IPN) which lost 2.49% to settle at 117.60 and Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which was down 2.46% to 2.341 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 306 to 269 and 93 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 2.94% to 11.38 a new 6-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.10% or 1.25 to $1275.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.19% or 0.12 to hit $63.64 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.07% or 0.05 to trade at $71.67 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.56% to 1.1231, while EUR/GBP fell 0.06% to 0.8650.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.51% at 97.148.