France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 0.69%

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

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.69% to hit a new 3-month high, while the SBF 120 index added 0.64%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin SCA (PA: MICP ), which rose 2.23% or 2.25 points to trade at 102.95 at the close. Airbus Group SE (PA: AIR ) added 2.01% or 2.30 points to end at 116.88 and Legrand SA (PA: LEGD ) was up 1.90% or 1.12 points to 59.98 in late trade.

Biggest losers included EssilorLuxottica SA (PA: ESLX ), which lost 1.35% or 1.40 points to trade at 102.45 in late trade. Sodexo SA (PA: EXHO ) declined 0.84% or 0.82 points to end at 97.28 and STMicroelectronics NV (PA: STM ) shed 0.82% or 0.115 points to 13.970.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Television Francaise 1 SA (PA: TFFP ) which rose 4.58% to 8.905, CGG SA (PA: GEPH ) which was up 4.30% to settle at 1.697 and Rubis SCA (PA: RUBF ) which gained 4.08% to close at 52.30.

The worst performers were Maisons du Monde SAS (PA: MDM ) which was down 8.61% to 20.380 in late trade, BIC (PA: BICP ) which lost 2.25% to settle at 80.30 and Eutelsat Communications SA (PA: ETL ) which was down 2.19% to 16.30 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 342 to 224 and 101 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 5.34% to 13.90.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.89% or 11.55 to $1309.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 2.66% or 1.51 to hit $58.38 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 1.47% or 0.98 to trade at $67.65 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.19% to 1.1307, while EUR/GBP fell 0.78% to 0.8563.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 96.678.