France stocks higher at close of trade; CAC 40 up 2.03%

Investing.com – France stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gas&Water, General Financial and Foods&Drugs sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Paris, the CAC 40 gained 2.03%, while the SBF 120 index climbed 1.95%.

The best performers of the session on the CAC 40 were Hermes International SCA (EPA:HRMS), which rose 4.69% or 79.00 points to trade at 1,765.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Dassault Systemes SE (EPA:DAST) added 4.20% or 1.53 points to end at 38.09 and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (EPA:LVMH) was up 3.49% or 27.00 points to 801.70 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Societe Generale SA (EPA:SOGN), which fell 1.21% or 0.26 points to trade at 21.23 at the close. WFD Unibail Rodamco NV (AS:URW) declined 1.18% or 0.63 points to end at 52.58 and Vivendi SA (EPA:VIV) was down 0.60% or 0.05 points to 8.94.

The top performers on the SBF 120 were Ubisoft Entertainment (EPA:UBIP) which rose 5.13% to 23.38, Hermes International SCA (EPA:HRMS) which was up 4.69% to settle at 1,765.00 and SCOR SE (EPA:SCOR) which gained 4.51% to close at 20.50.

The worst performers were Vallourec (EPA:VLLP) which was down 1.73% to 11.10 in late trade, CGG SA (EPA:GEPH) which lost 1.70% to settle at 0.69 and Aperam SA (AS:APAM) which was down 1.55% to 32.37 at the close.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Paris Stock Exchange by 323 to 224 and 83 ended unchanged.

The CAC 40 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of CAC 40 options, was unchanged 0.00% to 18.96 a new 52-week high.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.55% or 10.55 to $1,920.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 2.10% or 1.42 to hit $69.03 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 2.16% or 1.59 to trade at $75.28 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.16% to 1.06, while EUR/GBP unchanged 0.15% to 0.87.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 104.25.