Investing.com – France stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, Financials and Basic Materials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 lost 1.63%, while the SBF 120 index lost 1.63%.
The best performers 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. Meanwhile, 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.
The worst performers of the session were BNP Paribas SA (PA:BNPP), which fell 3.12% or 2.10 points to trade at 65.11 at the close. Publicis Groupe SA (PA:PUBP) declined 3.07% or 2.08 points to end at 65.57 and ArcelorMittal SA (AS:ISPA) was down 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.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Paris Stock Exchange by 448 to 169 and 93 ended unchanged.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 18.69% to 15.50.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.71% or 21.09 to $1257.49 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.97% or 0.47 to hit $49.13 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 1.20% or 0.62 to trade at $52.27 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.