Investing.com – France stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Beverage, Aerospace & Defense and Technology Hardware & Equipment sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 fell 2.59%, while the SBF 120 index fell 2.46%.
The best performers of the session on the CAC 40 were Kering (PARIS:PRTP), which fell 0.21% or 0.35 points to trade at 169.50 at the close. Meanwhile, Bouygues (PARIS:BOUY) fell 0.54% or 0.20 points to end at 37.07 and AXA SA (PARIS:AXAF) was down 1.13% or 0.26 points to 22.25 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Arcelormittal (AMS:ISPA), which fell 4.31% or 0.43 points to trade at 9.57 at the close. Alcatel-Lucent (PARIS:ALUA) declined 4.28% or 0.156 points to end at 3.488 and Peugeot SA (PARIS:PEUP) was down 4.13% or 0.70 points to 16.37.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Ipsen (PARIS:IPN) which rose 4.97% to 50.30, Sopra Steria Group SA (PARIS:SOPR) which was up 3.27% to settle at 78.69 and Nexity (PARIS:NEXI) which gained 2.44% to close at 38.60.
The worst performers were Aperam (AMS:APAM) which was down 6.51% to 34.09 in late trade, Saft (PARIS:S1A) which lost 5.65% to settle at 35.38 and Natixis (PARIS:CNAT) which was down 5.01% to 7.278 at the close.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Paris Stock Exchange by 654 to 255 and 59 ended unchanged.
Shares in Ipsen (PARIS:IPN) rose to all time highs; up 4.97% or 2.38 to 50.30.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was up 8.87% to 23.03 a new 1-month high.
Gold for June delivery was down 0.35% or 4.20 to $1209.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 3.10% or 1.77 to hit $58.83 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 2.27% or 1.47 to trade at $66.11 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.70% to 1.1167, while EUR/GBP rose 0.80% to 0.7215.
The US Dollar Index was down 1.34% at 94.90.