France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 0.62%

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

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.62% to hit a new 6-month high, while the SBF 120 index gained 0.51%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were ArcelorMittal SA (AS: MT ), which rose 4.13% or 0.845 points to trade at 21.285 at the close. Valeo SA (PA: VLOF ) added 3.26% or 1.00 points to end at 31.65 and EssilorLuxottica SA (PA: ESLX ) was up 3.23% or 3.35 points to 107.10 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Sanofi SA (PA: SASY ), which lost 2.72% or 2.04 points to trade at 73.06 in late trade. Carrefour SA (PA: CARR ) declined 1.38% or 0.23 points to end at 16.77 and WFD Unibail Rodamco NV (AS: URW ) shed 0.89% or 1.40 points to 155.10.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Vallourec (PA: VLLP ) which rose 13.21% to 2.400, Tarkett (PA: TKTT ) which was up 9.88% to settle at 20.24 and Maisons du Monde SAS (PA: MDM ) which gained 6.68% to close at 19.470.

The worst performers were GTT (PA: GTT ) which was down 5.37% to 82.80 in late trade, Sartorius Stedim Biotech SA (PA: STDM ) which lost 5.17% to settle at 106.40 and Biomerieux SA (PA: BIOX ) which was down 3.83% to 72.80 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 314 to 264 and 83 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 0.79% to 11.73.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.13% or 1.65 to $1275.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $64.06 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.10 to trade at $71.82 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.15% to 1.1297, while EUR/GBP rose 0.24% to 0.8665.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 96.670.