Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Consumer Services, Oil & Gas and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 declined 0.36%, while the SBF 120 index lost 0.27%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Veolia Environnement VE SA (PA:VIE), which rose 0.81% or 0.170 points to trade at 21.090 at the close. Peugeot SA (PA:PEUP) added 0.58% or 0.10 points to end at 18.27 and Danone SA (PA:DANO) was up 0.54% or 0.37 points to 69.12 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Publicis Groupe SA (PA:PUBP), which lost 2.29% or 1.34 points to trade at 57.14 in late trade. Carrefour SA (PA:CARR) declined 1.75% or 0.32 points to end at 17.68 and Societe Generale (PA:SOGN) shed 1.74% or 0.80 points to 45.28.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Europcar Groupe SA (PA:EUCAR) which rose 4.05% to 10.40, Alstom SA (PA:ALSO) which was up 2.54% to settle at 36.72 and Eramet (PA:ERMT) which gained 2.19% to close at 121.30.
The worst performers were Groupe FNAC (PA:FNAC) which was down 5.52% to 94.950 in late trade, Casino Guichard (PA:CASP) which lost 5.20% to settle at 48.10 and Technicolor (PA:TCH) which was down 4.45% to 3.138 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 332 to 268 and 91 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 6.76% to 11.25.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.13% or 1.70 to $1335.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.22% or 0.14 to hit $63.87 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $69.17 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.21% to 1.2235, while EUR/GBP fell 0.46% to 0.8847.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 90.33.