France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 0.36%

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

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.36% to hit a new 1-month high, while the SBF 120 index climbed 0.22%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Total SA (PA: TOTF ), which rose 2.04% or 0.96 points to trade at 47.98 at the close. Valeo SA (PA: VLOF ) added 1.72% or 0.46 points to end at 27.27 and Sanofi SA (PA: SASY ) was up 1.55% or 1.16 points to 75.82 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Societe Generale SA (PA: SOGN ), which lost 3.72% or 1.05 points to trade at 27.14 in late trade. BNP Paribas SA (PA: BNPP ) declined 3.20% or 1.35 points to end at 40.97 and Credit Agricole SA (PA: CAGR ) shed 2.00% or 0.203 points to 9.959.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Casino Guichard (PA: CASP ) which rose 4.39% to 43.01, Eramet (PA: ERMT ) which was up 3.14% to settle at 60.85 and Worldline SA (PA: WLN ) which gained 3.13% to close at 46.820.

The worst performers were Vallourec (PA: VLLP ) which was down 8.05% to 1.570 in late trade, Societe Generale SA (PA: SOGN ) which lost 3.72% to settle at 27.14 and Ipsos (PA: ISOS ) which was down 3.24% to 20.28 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 322 to 258 and 91 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 5.48% to 14.98.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.75% or 9.85 to $1325.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.05% or 0.57 to hit $54.80 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.37% or 0.23 to trade at $61.77 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.28% to 1.1444, while EUR/GBP fell 0.39% to 0.8716.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.28% at 95.295.