France shares lower at close of trade; CAC 40 down 0.34%

Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities , Consumer Goods and General Financial sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 declined 0.34%, while the SBF 120 index lost 0.29%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Sodexo (PA: EXHO ), which rose 1.75% or 1.64 points to trade at 95.18 at the close. Hermes International SCA (PA: HRMS ) added 1.39% or 6.80 points to end at 495.70 and Compagnie de Saint Gobain SA (PA: SGOB ) was up 1.02% or 0.29 points to 29.30 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Societe Generale SA (PA: SOGN ), which lost 5.66% or 1.71 points to trade at 28.50 in late trade. BNP Paribas SA (PA: BNPP ) declined 3.85% or 1.66 points to end at 41.42 and Credit Agricole SA (PA: CAGR ) shed 1.86% or 0.192 points to 10.154.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Eramet (PA: ERMT ) which rose 6.06% to 68.25, Getlink SE (PA: GETP ) which was up 3.21% to settle at 12.365 and Korian Medica SA (PA: KORI ) which gained 2.72% to close at 33.960.

The worst performers were DBV Technologies (PA: DBV ) which was down 7.91% to 12.580 in late trade, Societe Generale SA (PA: SOGN ) which lost 5.66% to settle at 28.50 and CGG SA (PA: GEPH ) which was down 4.37% to 1.445 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 319 to 261 and 88 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 2.69% to 15.65 a new 3-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.23% or 2.95 to $1290.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.90% or 0.47 to hit $51.84 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.51% or 0.31 to trade at $61.01 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.11% to 1.1384, while EUR/GBP fell 0.61% to 0.8791.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 95.790.