Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Consumer Services, Financials and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 declined 0.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 3.57% or 2.240 points to trade at 65.000 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 1.91% or 1.23 points to end at 65.56 and NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) was up 1.08% or 0.41 points to 39.01 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ageas (BR:AGES), which lost 2.03% or 0.785 points to trade at 37.965 in late trade. Etablissementen Fr Colruyt NV (BR:COLR) declined 1.29% or 0.61 points to end at 46.65 and Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB) shed 1.13% or 1.50 points to 130.95.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 63 to 49 and 10 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 1.54% or 18.00 to $1183.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.26% or 0.14 to hit $53.12 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.23% or 0.13 to trade at $56.33 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.03% to 1.0596, while EUR/GBP rose 0.29% to 0.8536.
The US Dollar Index was down 1.00% at 101.46.