Investing.com – France equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, Financials and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 fell 1.63%, while the SBF 120 index fell 1.63%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Carrefour SA (PA:CARR), which fell 0.30% or 0.07 points to trade at 23.25 at the close. Total SA (PA:TOTF) fell 0.51% or 0.25 points to end at 48.45 and Bouygues SA (PA:BOUY) was down 0.75% or 0.29 points to 38.28 in late trade.
Biggest losers included BNP Paribas SA (PA:BNPP), which lost 3.12% or 2.10 points to trade at 65.11 in late trade. Publicis Groupe SA (PA:PUBP) declined 3.07% or 2.08 points to end at 65.57 and ArcelorMittal SA (AS:ISPA) shed 2.93% or 0.201 points to 6.657.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Sartorius Stedim Biotech (PA:STDM) which rose 1.15% to 67.02, Havas (PA:HAVA) which was up 0.17% to settle at 9.105 and Altran Technologies (PA:ALTT) which gained 0.16% to close at 16.000.
The worst performers were Electricite de France SA (PA:EDF) which was down 6.57% to 8.85 in late trade, STMicroelectronics (PA:STM) which lost 4.51% to settle at 14.700 and Soitec SA (PA:SOIT) which was down 3.74% to 44.500 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 448 to 169 and 93 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 18.69% to 15.50.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.71% or 21.09 to $1257.49 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.99% or 0.48 to hit $49.14 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 1.18% or 0.61 to trade at $52.26 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.51% to 1.1139, while EUR/GBP rose 0.27% to 0.8602.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.57% at 97.54.