Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Healthcare, Financials and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 fell 2.13%, while the SBF 120 index fell 2.00%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Bouygues SA (PA:BOUY), which fell 0.18% or 0.07 points to trade at 36.75 at the close. Vinci SA (PA:SGEF) fell 0.67% or 0.44 points to end at 65.00 and Sodexo (PA:EXHO) was down 0.68% or 0.64 points to 93.32 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Societe Generale (PA:SOGN), which lost 3.99% or 1.36 points to trade at 32.88 in late trade. Pernod Ricard SA (PA:PERP) declined 3.87% or 4.02 points to end at 99.98 and Nokia Oyj (PA:NOKIA) shed 3.77% or 0.201 points to 5.134.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Groupe Eurotunnel (PA:GETP) which rose 3.02% to 9.833, Alstom SA (PA:ALSO) which was up 1.71% to settle at 23.18 and Elis Services SA (PA:ELIS) which gained 1.13% to close at 16.99.
The worst performers were Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which was down 8.03% to 5.52 in late trade, Neopost (PA:NPOS) which lost 5.12% to settle at 20.02 and Maurel Et Prom (PA:MAUP) which was down 4.76% to 3.00 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 489 to 162 and 101 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 11.98% to 23.02.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.20% or 2.40 to $1221.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.88% or 0.35 to hit $39.44 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.42% or 0.17 to trade at $40.30 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.04% to 1.1176, while EUR/GBP fell 0.47% to 0.7885.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.07% at 96.13.