France shares lower at close of trade; CAC 40 down 0.29%

Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Technology , Utilities and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 declined 0.29% to hit a new 52-week low, while the SBF 120 index fell 1.79%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Kering SA (PA: PRTP ), which rose 4.79% or 16.90 points to trade at 370.00 at the close. Safran SA (PA: SAF ) added 3.99% or 4.20 points to end at 109.40 and Vinci SA (PA: SGEF ) was up 3.71% or 2.76 points to 77.22 in late trade.

Biggest losers included STMicroelectronics NV (PA: STM ), which lost 10.02% or 1.355 points to trade at 12.165 in late trade. ArcelorMittal SA (AS: MT ) declined 5.83% or 1.340 points to end at 21.635 and Atos SE (PA: ATOS ) shed 5.51% or 3.86 points to 66.14.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were BIC (PA: BICP ) which rose 6.14% to 82.05, Tarkett (PA: TKTT ) which was up 5.81% to settle at 19.12 and Rubis SCA (PA: RUBF ) which gained 5.44% to close at 44.98.

The worst performers were STMicroelectronics NV (PA: STM ) which was down 10.02% to 12.165 in late trade, Soitec SA (PA: SOIT ) which lost 8.80% to settle at 57.500 and ArcelorMittal SA (AS: MT ) which was down 5.83% to 21.635 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 344 to 229 and 80 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 12.39% to 20.50 a new 6-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.16% or 2.00 to $1231.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 1.78% or 1.18 to hit $67.61 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 1.27% or 0.97 to trade at $77.41 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.66% to 1.1396, while EUR/GBP fell 0.03% to 0.8833.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.41% at 96.11.