France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 0.65%

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

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 rose 0.65%, while the SBF 120 index added 0.61%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were STMicroelectronics NV (PA: STM ), which rose 10.12% or 1.265 points to trade at 13.765 at the close. Valeo SA (PA: VLOF ) added 5.80% or 1.49 points to end at 27.17 and Atos SE (PA: ATOS ) was up 4.70% or 3.42 points to 76.26 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Carrefour SA (PA: CARR ), which lost 1.40% or 0.24 points to trade at 17.22 in late trade. L’Oreal SA (PA: OREP ) declined 0.50% or 1.00 points to end at 199.50 and Sodexo (PA: EXHO ) shed 0.49% or 0.46 points to 93.82.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were STMicroelectronics NV (PA: STM ) which rose 10.12% to 13.765, Valeo SA (PA: VLOF ) which was up 5.80% to settle at 27.17 and DBV Technologies (PA: DBV ) which gained 5.54% to close at 10.660.

The worst performers were Iliad (PA: ILD ) which was down 3.16% to 102.50 in late trade, Eramet (PA: ERMT ) which lost 2.98% to settle at 53.70 and Korian Medica SA (PA: KORI ) which was down 2.58% to 31.740 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 310 to 257 and 91 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 6.28% to 15.74.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.35% or 4.45 to $1279.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.10% or 0.58 to hit $53.20 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.10% or 0.06 to trade at $61.20 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.64% to 1.1307, while EUR/GBP fell 0.31% to 0.8679.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.53% at 96.282.