Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Telecoms and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 0.72%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 4.64% or 1.730 points to trade at 38.980 at the close. UCB (BR:UCB) added 3.48% or 2.37 points to end at 70.56 and Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX) was up 1.77% or 0.52 points to 29.68 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Solvay SA (BR:SOLB), which lost 1.63% or 1.37 points to trade at 82.82 in late trade. Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BR:ABI) declined 0.64% or 0.70 points to end at 108.30 and bpost NV (BR:BPOST) gained 0.08% or 0.02 points to 24.29.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 96 to 43 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.28% or 3.50 to $1226.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 4.82% or 1.73 to hit $37.62 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 4.89% or 1.85 to trade at $39.72 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.30% to 1.1418, while EUR/GBP rose 0.39% to 0.8070.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.27% at 94.35.