Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials, Healthcare and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Ageas (BR:AGES), which rose 1.41% or 0.535 points to trade at 38.500 at the close. Umicore NV (BR:UMI) added 1.34% or 0.72 points to end at 54.46 and Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) was up 1.05% or 0.680 points to 65.680 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Anheuser Busch Inbev SA NV (BR:ABI), which lost 0.54% or 0.55 points to trade at 100.50 in late trade. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) declined 0.37% or 0.10 points to end at 28.28 and Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) shed 0.32% or 0.35 points to 110.55.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 62 to 55 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.72% or 8.45 to $1172.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.60% or 0.32 to hit $54.08 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.47% or 0.27 to trade at $57.16 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.58% to 1.0543, while EUR/GBP rose 0.43% to 0.8578.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.72% at 102.12.