Investing.com – France equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Utilities and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 rose 2.31% to hit a new 3-month high, while the SBF 120 index gained 2.11%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the CAC 40 were Veolia Environnement VE SA (PA:VIE), which rose 4.90% or 0.940 points to trade at 20.140 at the close. Essilor International Compagnie Generale d’Optique SA (PA:ESSI) added 3.65% or 4.10 points to end at 116.45 and Accor SA (PA:ACCP) was up 3.58% or 1.23 points to 35.56 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Klepierre (PA:LOIM), which added 0.81% or 0.34 points to trade at 42.44 in late trade. Lafargeholcim Ltd (PA:LHN) added 0.90% or 0.42 points to end at 47.53 and Publicis Groupe SA (PA:PUBP) gained 1.01% or 0.68 points to 67.87.
The top performers on the SBF 120 were Eutelsat Communications (PA:ETL) which rose 5.41% to 18.42, Suez SA (PA:SEVI) which was up 5.38% to settle at 14.300 and Vallourec (PA:VLLP) which gained 5.32% to close at 4.139.
The worst performers were Ingenico Group (PA:INGC) which was down 5.49% to 91.67 in late trade, Bollore SA (PA:BOLL) which lost 3.28% to settle at 3.153 and STMicroelectronics (PA:STM) which was down 2.80% to 6.503 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 461 to 203 and 104 ended unchanged on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was down 10.34% to 17.36.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.55% or 7.25 to $1324.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 2.97% or 1.28 to hit $44.44 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 2.99% or 1.36 to trade at $46.81 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.38% to 1.1155, while EUR/GBP fell 0.50% to 0.8388.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.25% at 95.90.