Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Utilities, Gas & Water and General Financial sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 1.24%, while the SBF 120 index climbed 1.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Engie SA (PA:ENGIE), which rose 3.54% or 0.42 points to trade at 12.45 at the close. Dassault Systemes (PA:DAST) added 3.36% or 3.60 points to end at 110.75 and Orange SA (PA:ORAN) was up 2.87% or 0.41 points to 14.49 in late trade.
Biggest losers included STMicroelectronics NV (PA:STM), which lost 1.23% or 0.165 points to trade at 13.260 in late trade. TechnipFMC PLC (PA:FTI) declined 1.04% or 0.24 points to end at 22.85 and Credit Agricole SA (PA:CAGR) shed 0.83% or 0.096 points to 11.412.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Ipsos (PA:ISOS) which rose 7.59% to 24.94, Nexity (PA:NEXI) which was up 4.54% to settle at 43.76 and Electricite de France SA (PA:EDF) which gained 4.32% to close at 15.56.
The worst performers were CGG SA (PA:GEPH) which was down 7.74% to 1.906 in late trade, Metropole TV (PA:MMTP) which lost 3.04% to settle at 16.90 and Vicat (PA:VCTP) which was down 2.63% to 45.18 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 377 to 184 and 103 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 8.36% to 16.26.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.47% or 5.70 to $1229.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.47% or 0.29 to hit $61.92 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.08% or 0.06 to trade at $72.19 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.32% to 1.1463, while EUR/GBP fell 0.09% to 0.8717.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.38% at 95.75.