Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, Healthcare and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 fell 1.09%, while the SBF 120 index declined 1.01%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Legrand SA (PA:LEGD), which rose 2.37% or 1.15 points to trade at 49.72 at the close. Societe Generale (PA:SOGN) added 1.68% or 0.55 points to end at 33.38 and ArcelorMittal SA (AS:ISPA) was up 1.16% or 0.05 points to 4.70 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Veolia Environnement VE SA (PA:VIE), which lost 4.02% or 0.840 points to trade at 20.045 in late trade. Orange SA (PA:ORAN) declined 3.68% or 0.55 points to end at 14.28 and Technip (PA:TECF) shed 3.64% or 1.77 points to 46.83.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Nexans (PA:NEXS) which rose 6.80% to 41.23, Elis Services SA (PA:ELIS) which was up 4.53% to settle at 16.62 and Wendel (PA:MWDP) which gained 3.96% to close at 103.65.
The worst performers were Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which was down 7.25% to 3.81 in late trade, CGG (PA:GEPH) which lost 5.41% to settle at 0.70 and Numericable SFR SA (PA:NUME) which was down 5.28% to 27.255 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 435 to 225 and 109 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 3.98% to 25.47 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.88% or 11.35 to $1280.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.27% or 0.12 to hit $43.77 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.42% or 0.19 to trade at $44.78 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.05% to 1.1492, while EUR/GBP rose 0.24% to 0.7929.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.25% at 93.25.