France shares lower at close of trade; CAC 40 down 0.26%

Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Technology , Consumer Goods and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 fell 0.26%, while the SBF 120 index declined 0.26%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Societe Generale SA (PA: SOGN ), which rose 3.09% or 0.80 points to trade at 26.56 at the close. Credit Agricole SA (PA: CAGR ) added 2.68% or 0.290 points to end at 11.100 and BNP Paribas SA (PA: BNPP ) was up 2.42% or 1.04 points to 44.20 in late trade.

Biggest losers included TechnipFMC PLC (PA: FTI ), which lost 2.65% or 0.54 points to trade at 19.82 in late trade. Veolia Environnement VE SA (PA: VIE ) declined 2.61% or 0.520 points to end at 19.390 and STMicroelectronics NV (PA: STM ) shed 2.26% or 0.340 points to 14.680.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Biomerieux SA (PA: BIOX ) which rose 6.51% to 73.60, Europcar Groupe SA (PA: EUCAR ) which was up 5.22% to settle at 7.75 and Vallourec (PA: VLLP ) which gained 4.24% to close at 2.362.

The worst performers were Air France KLM SA (PA: AIRF ) which was down 11.74% to 11.235 in late trade, Solvay SA (BR: SOLB ) which lost 5.44% to settle at 96.64 and Technicolor (PA: TCH ) which was down 3.35% to 0.995 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 304 to 240 and 120 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 5.04% to 14.27.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.57% or 7.55 to $1320.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 3.21% or 1.78 to hit $57.28 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 2.19% or 1.43 to trade at $66.79 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.08% to 1.1376, while EUR/GBP fell 0.62% to 0.8546.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 96.005.