France shares lower at close of trade; CAC 40 down 0.80%

Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas , Utilities and Gas & Water sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 fell 0.80%, while the SBF 120 index lost 0.88%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Hermes International SCA (PA: HRMS ), which rose 1.08% or 6.40 points to trade at 596.60 at the close. Air Liquide SA (PA: AIRP ) added 0.72% or 0.80 points to end at 112.65 and Pernod Ricard SA (PA: PERP ) was up 0.54% or 0.85 points to 157.90 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Peugeot SA (PA: PEUP ), which lost 3.23% or 0.74 points to trade at 22.15 in late trade. Valeo SA (PA: VLOF ) declined 3.21% or 0.90 points to end at 27.10 and ArcelorMittal SA (AS: MT ) shed 2.83% or 0.564 points to 19.350.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were CGG SA (PA: GEPH ) which rose 2.92% to 1.798, Ubisoft Entertainment (PA: UBIP ) which was up 2.83% to settle at 78.400 and ALD SA (PA: ALDA ) which gained 2.69% to close at 12.97.

The worst performers were Elior Group (PA: ELIOR ) which was down 6.46% to 12.60 in late trade, Faurecia (PA: EPED ) which lost 6.37% to settle at 39.25 and Compagnie Plastic Omnium SA (PA: PLOF ) which was down 4.08% to 24.47 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 342 to 212 and 116 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The CAC 40 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 9.69% to 14.29.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.78% or 10.25 to $1316.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.40% or 0.83 to hit $60.12 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 1.21% or 0.82 to trade at $68.43 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.80% to 1.1440, while EUR/GBP rose 0.97% to 0.8635.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.62% at 95.238.