France shares lower at close of trade; CAC 40 down 0.79%

Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Utilities , Gas & Water and General Financial sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.79% to hit a new 3-month low, while the SBF 120 index declined 0.72%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Worldline SA (PA: WLN ), which rose 1.41% or 0.750 points to trade at 53.900 at the close. Veolia Environnement VE SA (PA: VIE ) added 0.93% or 0.190 points to end at 20.710 and STMicroelectronics NV (PA: STM ) was up 0.81% or 0.110 points to 13.695 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Renault SA (PA: RENA ), which lost 4.55% or 2.57 points to trade at 53.92 in late trade. TechnipFMC PLC (PA: FTI ) declined 2.54% or 0.49 points to end at 18.80 and Pernod Ricard SA (PA: PERP ) shed 2.47% or 4.00 points to 157.80.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Casino Guichard Perrachon SA (PA: CASP ) which rose 3.02% to 34.07, Electricite de France SA (PA: EDF ) which was up 2.24% to settle at 12.56 and Groupe FNAC (PA: FNAC ) which gained 1.79% to close at 68.200.

The worst performers were Natixis (PA: CNAT ) which was down 15.94% to 4.109 in late trade, Faurecia (PA: EPED ) which lost 6.98% to settle at 33.07 and Eramet SA (PA: ERMT ) which was down 4.71% to 50.62 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 344 to 213 and 84 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 4.62% to 16.95.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.35% or 17.40 to $1304.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 3.23% or 1.83 to hit $54.76 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 3.35% or 2.19 to trade at $63.14 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.27% to 1.1160, while EUR/GBP rose 0.14% to 0.8839.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.30% at 97.762.