France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 0.34%

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

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 rose 0.34%, while the SBF 120 index added 0.39%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Renault SA (PA: RENA ), which rose 5.64% or 5.04 points to trade at 94.44 at the close. Unibail Rodamco SE (AS: UNBP ) added 1.84% or 3.45 points to end at 191.20 and Solvay SA (BR: SOLB ) was up 1.29% or 1.45 points to 113.45 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Publicis Groupe SA (PA: PUBP ), which lost 1.89% or 1.10 points to trade at 57.24 in late trade. AXA SA (PA: AXAF ) declined 1.82% or 0.41 points to end at 22.41 and Credit Agricole SA (PA: CAGR ) shed 0.84% or 0.115 points to 13.620.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Technicolor (PA: TCH ) which rose 16.70% to 1.656, Aeroports De Paris SA (PA: ADP ) which was up 6.11% to settle at 175.50 and Renault SA (PA: RENA ) which gained 5.64% to close at 94.44.

The worst performers were Maisons du Monde SAS (PA: MDM ) which was down 6.53% to 32.340 in late trade, Tarkett (PA: TKTT ) which lost 4.42% to settle at 27.24 and SES (PA: SESFd ) which was down 2.99% to 12.48 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 315 to 256 and 113 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 1.96% to 17.31.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.67% or 8.90 to $1326.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 2.75% or 1.72 to hit $60.88 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 2.54% or 1.67 to trade at $64.12 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.09% to 1.2393, while EUR/GBP fell 0.03% to 0.8929.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 89.69.