France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 0.31%

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

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.31% to hit a new 6-month high, while the SBF 120 index gained 0.30%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Schneider Electric SE (PA: SCHN ), which rose 2.72% or 2.04 points to trade at 77.00 at the close. Valeo SA (PA: VLOF ) added 2.43% or 0.77 points to end at 32.42 and Publicis Groupe SA (PA: PUBP ) was up 1.54% or 0.78 points to 51.58 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Kering SA (PA: PRTP ), which lost 5.04% or 27.10 points to trade at 510.40 in late trade. ArcelorMittal SA (AS: MT ) declined 1.15% or 0.245 points to end at 21.040 and Pernod Ricard SA (PA: PERP ) shed 1.06% or 1.65 points to 154.70.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Soitec SA (PA: SOIT ) which rose 10.23% to 92.150, Vicat (PA: VCTP ) which was up 5.63% to settle at 49.75 and Groupe FNAC (PA: FNAC ) which gained 4.37% to close at 76.450.

The worst performers were Kering SA (PA: PRTP ) which was down 5.04% to 510.40 in late trade, Ipsen SA (PA: IPN ) which lost 2.49% to settle at 117.60 and Vallourec (PA: VLLP ) which was down 2.46% to 2.341 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 306 to 269 and 93 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 2.94% to 11.38 a new 6-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.10% or 1.25 to $1275.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.19% or 0.12 to hit $63.64 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.07% or 0.05 to trade at $71.67 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.56% to 1.1231, while EUR/GBP fell 0.06% to 0.8650.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.51% at 97.148.