Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 added 0.67%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 4.96% or 2.740 points to trade at 57.960 at the close. ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) added 2.43% or 0.325 points to end at 13.710 and KBC (BR:KBC) was up 2.19% or 1.310 points to 61.020 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which lost 2.34% or 0.93 points to trade at 38.56 in late trade. Cofinimmo-Sicafi (BR:COFB) declined 2.04% or 2.15 points to end at 103.05 and Elia (BR:ELI) shed 1.06% or 0.505 points to 47.280.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 59 to 57 and 8 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 3.13% or 36.45 to $1127.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.61% or 0.31 to hit $50.73 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.18 to trade at $53.72 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 1.39% to 1.0388, while EUR/GBP fell 0.06% to 0.8376.
The US Dollar Index was up 1.30% at 103.36.