France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 0.23%

Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas , Basic Materials and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.23%, while the SBF 120 index gained 0.16%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were TechnipFMC PLC (PA: FTI ), which rose 1.68% or 0.49 points to trade at 29.74 at the close. Total SA (PA: TOTF ) added 1.47% or 0.68 points to end at 46.98 and Schneider Electric SE (PA: SCHN ) was up 1.38% or 0.90 points to 66.06 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Renault SA (PA: RENA ), which lost 3.67% or 3.13 points to trade at 82.20 in late trade. Publicis Groupe SA (PA: PUBP ) declined 0.91% or 0.57 points to end at 62.07 and Safran SA (PA: SAF ) shed 0.82% or 0.56 points to 67.84.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Amundi SA (PA: AMUN ) which rose 4.28% to 52.00, Alstom SA (PA: ALSO ) which was up 3.43% to settle at 26.35 and Vallourec (PA: VLLP ) which gained 2.62% to close at 5.363.

The worst performers were Zodiac Aerospace (PA: ZODC ) which was down 16.26% to 23.00 in late trade, Renault SA (PA: RENA ) which lost 3.67% to settle at 82.20 and DBV Technologies (PA: DBV ) which was down 2.67% to 66.250 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 316 to 291 and 102 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 1.40% to 10.60.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.04% or 0.45 to $1202.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.45% or 0.69 to hit $48.41 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 1.04% or 0.53 to trade at $51.45 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.34% to 1.0640, while EUR/GBP fell 0.18% to 0.8710.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.31% at 101.30.