France shares lower at close of trade; CAC 40 down 0.39%

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

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 declined 0.39%, while the SBF 120 index fell 0.49%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were L’Oreal SA (PA: OREP ), which rose 1.83% or 4.10 points to trade at 228.10 at the close. Pernod Ricard SA (PA: PERP ) added 1.33% or 2.05 points to end at 156.05 and Engie SA (PA: ENGIE ) was up 1.26% or 0.17 points to 13.28 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Societe Generale SA (PA: SOGN ), which lost 4.32% or 1.17 points to trade at 25.94 in late trade. Peugeot SA (PA: PEUP ) declined 3.87% or 0.86 points to end at 21.35 and Valeo SA (PA: VLOF ) shed 3.77% or 1.04 points to 26.52.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Eurofins Scientific SE (PA: EUFI ) which rose 4.12% to 388.80, Technicolor (PA: TCH ) which was up 4.00% to settle at 1.223 and DBV Technologies (PA: DBV ) which gained 2.76% to close at 15.250.

The worst performers were Nexans SA (PA: NEXS ) which was down 4.83% to 27.78 in late trade, Societe Generale SA (PA: SOGN ) which lost 4.32% to settle at 25.94 and Faurecia (PA: EPED ) which was down 4.17% to 40.25 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 382 to 179 and 95 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 4.22% to 13.51.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.14% or 1.85 to $1285.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.73% or 0.41 to hit $56.63 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.39% or 0.26 to trade at $66.25 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.89% to 1.1204, while EUR/GBP fell 0.22% to 0.8564.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.72% at 97.495.