France shares lower at close of trade; CAC 40 down 0.23%

Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Consumer Goods , Healthcare and Foods & Drugs sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 fell 0.23%, while the SBF 120 index declined 0.18%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Legrand SA (PA: LEGD ), which rose 7.14% or 3.74 points to trade at 56.12 at the close. Schneider Electric SE (PA: SCHN ) added 3.70% or 2.36 points to end at 66.14 and Capgemini SE (PA: CAPP ) was up 3.18% or 3.15 points to 102.35 in late trade.

Biggest losers included WFD Unibail Rodamco NV (AS: URW ), which lost 5.38% or 8.16 points to trade at 143.42 in late trade. EssilorLuxottica SA (PA: ESLX ) declined 3.11% or 3.40 points to end at 106.10 and Kering SA (PA: PRTP ) shed 2.46% or 11.80 points to 468.20.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were DBV Technologies (PA: DBV ) which rose 9.19% to 13.540, Ipsen SA (PA: IPN ) which was up 7.66% to settle at 118.00 and Legrand SA (PA: LEGD ) which gained 7.14% to close at 56.12.

The worst performers were WFD Unibail Rodamco NV (AS: URW ) which was down 5.38% to 143.42 in late trade, BIC (PA: BICP ) which lost 4.75% to settle at 83.25 and Natixis (PA: CNAT ) which was down 4.67% to 4.271 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 292 to 273 and 97 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 9.35% to 15.53.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.04% or 0.55 to $1314.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.85% or 0.46 to hit $54.36 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.23% or 0.78 to trade at $64.39 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.20% to 1.1287, while EUR/GBP rose 0.58% to 0.8814.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 96.898.