Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Oil & Gas and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 1.78%, while the SBF 120 index gained 1.72%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Technip (PA:TECF), which rose 6.22% or 2.90 points to trade at 49.58 at the close. Lafargeholcim Ltd (PA:LHN) added 5.95% or 2.31 points to end at 41.14 and Valeo SA (PA:VLOF) was up 4.96% or 6.45 points to 136.50 in late trade.
Biggest losers included AXA SA (PA:AXAF), which lost 0.39% or 0.08 points to trade at 20.65 in late trade. Airbus Group (PA:AIR) declined 0.15% or 0.09 points to end at 59.96 and Orange SA (PA:ORAN) shed 0.03% or 0.01 points to 15.59.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which rose 6.99% to 5.66, Technip (PA:TECF) which was up 6.22% to settle at 49.58 and Lafargeholcim Ltd (PA:LHN) which gained 5.95% to close at 41.14.
The worst performers were Numericable Pr (PA:NUME) which was down 1.12% to 37.675 in late trade, Bollore SA (PA:BOLL) which lost 1.02% to settle at 3.49 and Genfit (PA:GNFT) which was down 0.43% to 28.685 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 481 to 173 and 113 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 9.85% to 21.05.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.69% or 8.60 to $1228.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.65% or 0.25 to hit $38.53 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.00% or 0.40 to trade at $40.25 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.28% to 1.1326, while EUR/GBP rose 0.17% to 0.7873.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.30% at 94.88.