Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Industrial Engineering, Oil & Gas and Oil & Gas Producers sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.70% to hit a new 5-year high, while the SBF 120 index added 0.60%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Technip (PARIS:TECF), which rose 4.01% or 2.52 points to trade at 65.31 at the close. Arcelormittal (AMS:ISPA) added 2.88% or 0.26 points to end at 9.44 and Airbus Group (PARIS:AIR) was up 2.62% or 1.60 points to 62.73 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Alcatel-Lucent (PARIS:ALUA), which lost 15.51% or 0.695 points to trade at 3.786 in late trade. Cap Gemini (PARIS:CAPP) declined 0.93% or 0.74 points to end at 78.82 and Vivendi (PARIS:VIV) shed 0.42% or 0.10 points to 23.85.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were CGG (PARIS:GEPH) which rose 6.58% to 6.59, Vallourec (PARIS:VLLP) which was up 6.46% to settle at 26.03 and Technip (PARIS:TECF) which gained 4.01% to close at 65.31.
The worst performers were Alcatel-Lucent (PARIS:ALUA) which was down 15.51% to 3.786 in late trade, Numericable Pr (PARIS:NUME) which lost 2.11% to settle at 52.080 and Alten (PARIS:LTEN) which was down 1.94% to 44.12 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 570 to 344 and 47 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 3.51% to 17.29.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.30% or 3.60 to $1196.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 4.62% or 2.46 to hit $55.75 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 4.22% or 2.52 to trade at $62.34 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.46% to 1.0608, while EUR/GBP fell 0.40% to 0.7180.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.15% at 99.16.