France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 1.10%

© Reuters. France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 1.10%

Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Consumer Services, Utilities and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 1.10%, while the SBF 120 index added 1.12%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Publicis Groupe SA (PA:PUBP), which rose 4.81% or 2.86 points to trade at 62.34 at the close. Kering SA (PA:PRTP) added 4.36% or 15.90 points to end at 380.90 and STMicroelectronics (PA:STM) was up 3.00% or 0.520 points to 17.865 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Credit Agricole SA (PA:CAGR), which lost 2.83% or 0.395 points to trade at 13.570 in late trade. Total SA (PA:TOTF) declined 0.02% or 0.01 points to end at 45.33 and Orange SA (PA:ORAN) gained 0.15% or 0.02 points to 13.45.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were DBV Technologies (PA:DBV) which rose 27.40% to 41.940, Tarkett (PA:TKTT) which was up 8.79% to settle at 30.68 and Rexel (PA:RXL) which gained 6.22% to close at 14.44.

The worst performers were Credit Agricole SA (PA:CAGR) which was down 2.83% to 13.570 in late trade, CNP Assurances (PA:CNPP) which lost 1.06% to settle at 19.600 and Euler Hermes (PA:ELER) which was down 0.82% to 121.00 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 405 to 187 and 85 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 18.18% to 19.17.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 1.58% or 21.00 to $1351.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.39% or 0.23 to hit $59.42 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.53% or 0.33 to trade at $63.05 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.45% to 1.2408, while EUR/GBP fell 0.12% to 0.8881.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.47% at 89.18.