Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Basic Materials and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 rose 1.25%, while the SBF 120 index climbed 1.11%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Sanofi SA (PA:SASY), which rose 4.62% or 3.54 points to trade at 80.19 at the close. Lafargeholcim Ltd (PA:LHN) added 2.51% or 1.28 points to end at 52.23 and ArcelorMittal SA (AS:ISPA) was up 2.30% or 0.169 points to 7.518 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Publicis Groupe SA (PA:PUBP), which lost 1.49% or 0.94 points to trade at 62.14 in late trade. Pernod Ricard SA (PA:PERP) declined 1.29% or 1.40 points to end at 107.05 and Valeo SA (PA:VLOF) shed 1.12% or 0.64 points to 56.35.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Eutelsat Communications (PA:ETL) which rose 8.17% to 17.75, Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which was up 6.14% to settle at 6.550 and Sanofi SA (PA:SASY) which gained 4.62% to close at 80.19.
The worst performers were Korian Medica SA (PA:KORI) which was down 5.16% to 25.920 in late trade, Nexans (PA:NEXS) which lost 4.31% to settle at 50.41 and Faurecia (PA:EPED) which was down 2.66% to 39.55 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 333 to 269 and 106 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 11.35% to 14.42.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.39% or 4.85 to $1234.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.34% or 0.70 to hit $53.04 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.87% or 0.48 to trade at $55.60 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.33% to 1.0663, while EUR/GBP fell 0.21% to 0.8514.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.42% at 100.56.