Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Technology Hardware & Equipment, Utilities and Gas & Water sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.58%, while the SBF 120 index gained 0.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Safran SA (PARIS:SAF), which rose 10.04% or 6.16 points to trade at 67.51 at the close. Legrand SA (PARIS:LEGD) added 7.16% or 3.73 points to end at 55.80 and Alcatel Lucent SA (PARIS:ALUA) was up 5.64% or 0.184 points to 3.446 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Renault SA (PARIS:RENA), which lost 7.99% or 7.22 points to trade at 83.13 in late trade. Peugeot SA (PARIS:PEUP) declined 3.98% or 0.75 points to end at 18.11 and Orange SA (PARIS:ORAN) shed 2.60% or 0.40 points to 15.00.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Safran SA (PARIS:SAF) which rose 10.04% to 67.51, Legrand SA (PARIS:LEGD) which was up 7.16% to settle at 55.80 and Ingenico Group (PARIS:INGC) which gained 6.45% to close at 116.30.
The worst performers were Coface (PARIS:COFA) which was down 21.00% to 9.14 in late trade, Elis Services SA (PARIS:ELIS) which lost 13.74% to settle at 15.76 and Aperam (AMS:APAM) which was down 11.80% to 33.78 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 426 to 391 and 53 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 0.62% to 18.98.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.37% or 4.00 to $1089.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $48.78 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.07 to trade at $53.45 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.77% to 1.0899, while EUR/GBP fell 0.58% to 0.7001.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.65% at 97.86.