France shares lower at close of trade; CAC 40 down 0.70%

Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Basic Materials , Financials and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 fell 0.70%, while the SBF 120 index declined 0.68%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were WFD Unibail Rodamco NV (AS: URW ), which rose 1.61% or 2.32 points to trade at 146.64 at the close. Orange SA (PA: ORAN ) added 1.04% or 0.14 points to end at 13.56 and L’Oreal SA (PA: OREP ) was up 0.44% or 1.00 points to 229.10 in late trade.

Biggest losers included EssilorLuxottica SA (PA: ESLX ), which lost 6.30% or 6.85 points to trade at 101.80 in late trade. ArcelorMittal SA (AS: MT ) declined 3.47% or 0.672 points to end at 18.710 and TechnipFMC PLC (PA: FTI ) shed 2.93% or 0.56 points to 18.73.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Neopost SA (PA: NPOS ) which rose 4.12% to 23.76, Covivio SA (PA: FDR ) which was up 2.26% to settle at 90.40 and Mercialys SA (PA: MERY ) which gained 1.72% to close at 13.01.

The worst performers were CGG SA (PA: GEPH ) which was down 7.59% to 1.485 in late trade, Vallourec (PA: VLLP ) which lost 6.47% to settle at 2.153 and EssilorLuxottica SA (PA: ESLX ) which was down 6.30% to 101.80 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 369 to 183 and 100 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 8.54% to 14.66.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 1.05% or 13.55 to $1299.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 1.01% or 0.57 to hit $56.09 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.78% or 0.52 to trade at $65.78 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.47% to 1.1244, while EUR/GBP rose 1.05% to 0.8643.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.37% at 97.262.