Paris prices close higher

IN Paris share prices closed slightly higher in thin volumes after a day of sluggish, volatile trade, lacking direction from Wall Street which was closed for Thanksgiving, and with only France Telecom and Vivendi carving out significant gains, dealers said.

The CAC-40 index closed up 16.23 or 0.49% at 3,329.99.

Twenty-five CAC-40 stocks closed up and 15 closed down.

Volume for the day was just 2.8 billion, following yesterday's extraordinary turnover of 10 billion, triggered by a technical effect at the end of the trading month.

On the Matif, November CAC-40 futures were trading up 22.5 or 0.68% at 3334.5.

The euro was at 0.9949/50 against the dollar, compared with 0.9885/90 in late trade yesterday.