Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Financials and Media sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.24%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were KBC (BR:KBC), which rose 3.73% or 1.790 points to trade at 49.830 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 2.99% or 2.10 points to end at 72.36 and Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG) was up 2.63% or 1.020 points to 39.850 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ageas (BR:AGES), which lost 1.55% or 0.550 points to trade at 34.910 in late trade. Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) declined 1.21% or 0.33 points to end at 26.62 and Proximus NV (BR:PROX) shed 1.00% or 0.30 points to 30.28.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 86 to 57 and 10 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 1.08% or 13.50 to $1236.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.62% or 0.70 to hit $43.88 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.64% or 0.73 to trade at $45.26 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.55% to 1.1226, while EUR/GBP fell 0.95% to 0.7806.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.52% at 95.11.