France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 0.84%

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

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.84% to hit a new 6-month high, while the SBF 120 index climbed 0.92%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were STMicroelectronics NV (PA: STM ), which rose 5.67% or 0.800 points to trade at 14.905 at the close. Sodexo SA (PA: EXHO ) added 3.04% or 3.01 points to end at 101.95 and Compagnie de Saint Gobain SA (PA: SGOB ) was up 2.82% or 0.94 points to 34.48 in late trade.

Biggest losers included TechnipFMC PLC (PA: FTI ), which lost 0.97% or 0.21 points to trade at 21.39 in late trade. Sanofi SA (PA: SASY ) declined 0.67% or 0.53 points to end at 78.71 and Kering SA (PA: PRTP ) shed 0.42% or 2.20 points to 524.20.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Maisons du Monde SAS (PA: MDM ) which rose 8.16% to 18.950, GTT (PA: GTT ) which was up 6.78% to settle at 88.20 and STMicroelectronics NV (PA: STM ) which gained 5.67% to close at 14.905.

The worst performers were Casino Guichard Perrachon SA (PA: CASP ) which was down 3.04% to 39.27 in late trade, Vallourec (PA: VLLP ) which lost 1.28% to settle at 2.167 and BIC (PA: BICP ) which was down 1.02% to 77.95 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 351 to 208 and 104 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 5.32% to 13.69.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.04% or 0.55 to $1295.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.16% or 0.10 to hit $62.48 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.45% or 0.31 to trade at $69.06 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.39% to 1.1245, while EUR/GBP rose 0.11% to 0.8538.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.36% at 96.578.