Utilities Buoyed by Defensive Plays -- Utilities Roundup

Shares of utilities rose as investors sought out safer corners of the market ahead of the first-round of voting in France's presidential election this weekend.

A fire at an electrical substation in San Francisco's Tenderloin district left about 95,000 people without power Friday. Utility PG&E said it has no information about whether this was "any sort of malicious activity," or whether the fire is connected in any way to concurrent power outages in New York and Los Angeles, a spokesman says.

-By Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 21, 2017 17:41 ET (21:41 GMT)