Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Oil & Gas and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 declined 1.88%, while the SBF 120 index lost 1.82%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Valeo SA (PA:VLOF), which fell 0.30% or 0.12 points to trade at 38.44 at the close. Kering SA (PA:PRTP) fell 0.38% or 0.55 points to end at 143.65 and Sodexo (PA:EXHO) was down 0.45% or 0.44 points to 96.46 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Air Liquide SA (PA:AIRP), which lost 4.17% or 3.90 points to trade at 89.60 in late trade. AXA SA (PA:AXAF) declined 3.89% or 0.66 points to end at 16.30 and Carrefour SA (PA:CARR) shed 3.27% or 0.72 points to 21.30.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Ubisoft Entertainment (PA:UBIP) which rose 1.22% to 33.260, Eutelsat Communications (PA:ETL) which was up 1.04% to settle at 16.48 and Alten (PA:LTEN) which gained 1.01% to close at 52.21.
The worst performers were Europcar Groupe SA (PA:EUCAR) which was down 5.43% to 6.88 in late trade, Air France KLM SA (PA:AIRF) which lost 5.00% to settle at 5.665 and Numericable SFR SA (PA:NUME) which was down 4.83% to 20.800 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 561 to 121 and 86 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 6.14% to 26.43.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.61% or 8.30 to $1367.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.05% or 0.49 to hit $47.09 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.79% or 0.38 to trade at $48.34 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.11% to 1.1088, while EUR/GBP rose 0.76% to 0.8569.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.05% at 96.22.