Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Financials, Utilities and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 lost 2.24%, while the SBF 120 index declined 2.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Safran SA (PA:SAF), which fell 0.52% or 0.32 points to trade at 60.68 at the close. ArcelorMittal SA (AS:ISPA) fell 0.84% or 0.040 points to end at 4.730 and Air Liquide SA (PA:AIRP) was down 0.96% or 0.90 points to 93.21 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Societe Generale (PA:SOGN), which lost 4.47% or 1.53 points to trade at 32.67 in late trade. AXA SA (PA:AXAF) declined 4.22% or 0.90 points to end at 20.31 and BNP Paribas SA (PA:BNPP) shed 3.44% or 1.58 points to 44.30.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Saft (PA:S1A) which fell 0.14% to 36.51, Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which was down 0.20% to settle at 3.550 and Nexity (PA:NEXI) which lost 0.34% to close at 47.00.
The worst performers were GTT (PA:GTT) which was down 5.92% to 30.66 in late trade, CGG (PA:GEPH) which lost 5.26% to settle at 0.7200 and Ingenico Group (PA:INGC) which was down 5.26% to 97.44 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 541 to 130 and 88 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 13.35% to 28.60 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.17% or 2.15 to $1274.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 2.55% or 1.29 to hit $49.27 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 2.39% or 1.24 to trade at $50.71 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.33% to 1.1281, while EUR/GBP rose 0.54% to 0.7872.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.34% at 94.42.