Investing.com – France stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Aerospace & Defense, Healthcare Equipment & Services and Gas & Water sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 rose 2.48%, while the SBF 120 index climbed 2.36%.
The best performers of the session on the CAC 40 were Airbus Group (PARIS:AIR), which rose 5.04% or 3.04 points to trade at 63.40 at the close. Meanwhile, Essilor International (PARIS:ESSI) added 4.45% or 4.75 points to end at 111.55 and Alcatel-Lucent (PARIS:ALUA) was up 4.44% or 0.146 points to 3.433 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were AXA SA (PARIS:AXAF), which rose 1.14% or 0.27 points to trade at 23.45 at the close. Accor (PARIS:ACCP) added 1.19% or 0.57 points to end at 48.77 and Carrefour (PARIS:CARR) was up 1.30% or 0.40 points to 30.76.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Air France KLM SA (PARIS:AIRF) which rose 5.27% to 8.212, Airbus Group (PARIS:AIR) which was up 5.04% to settle at 63.40 and Eiffage (PARIS:FOUG) which gained 4.56% to close at 53.83.
The worst performers were GTT (PARIS:GTT) which was down 0.93% to 54.49 in late trade, Elior (PARIS:ELIOR) which lost 0.31% to settle at 15.90 and Bureau Veritas (PARIS:BVI) which was down 0.17% to 20.98 at the close.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Paris Stock Exchange by 690 to 183 and 66 ended unchanged.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 9.61% to 20.12.
Gold for June delivery was up 0.45% or 5.30 to $1187.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.51% or 0.30 to hit $59.24 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.43% or 0.28 to trade at $65.25 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.30% to 1.1232, while EUR/GBP fell 1.65% to 0.7267.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 94.73.