France shares higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 2.62%

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

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 rose 2.62%, while the SBF 120 index added 2.49%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were TechnipFMC PLC (PA: FTI ), which rose 5.86% or 1.36 points to trade at 24.57 at the close. ArcelorMittal SA (AS: MT ) added 5.58% or 1.380 points to end at 26.095 and Safran SA (PA: SAF ) was up 4.59% or 3.84 points to 87.44 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin SCA (PA: MICP ), which added 0.76% or 0.90 points to trade at 119.30 in late trade. Legrand SA (PA: LEGD ) added 0.90% or 0.56 points to end at 63.00 and Veolia Environnement VE SA (PA: VIE ) gained 0.94% or 0.179 points to 19.239.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Ubisoft Entertainment (PA: UBIP ) which rose 10.77% to 73.860, Soitec SA (PA: SOIT ) which was up 6.29% to settle at 59.950 and Vallourec (PA: VLLP ) which gained 6.14% to close at 4.460.

The worst performers were Solocal Group SA (PA: LOCAL ) which was down 1.46% to 1.148 in late trade, ALD SA (PA: ALDA ) which lost 0.89% to settle at 13.30 and Genfit (PA: GNFT ) which was down 0.34% to 23.280 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 400 to 147 and 104 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 13.90% to 15.89.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.84% or 11.30 to $1328.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.41% or 0.26 to hit $63.63 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.56% or 0.38 to trade at $68.40 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.31% to 1.2239, while EUR/GBP rose 0.23% to 0.8741.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.41% at 90.15.