Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Financials, Consumer Goods and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.16% to hit a new 5-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which rose 1.93% or 0.58 points to trade at 30.86 at the close. KBC (BR:KBC) added 1.02% or 0.730 points to end at 72.000 and Ackermans V.Haaren (BR:ACKB) was up 0.84% or 1.25 points to 150.25 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Umicore SA (BR:UMI), which lost 2.35% or 0.91 points to trade at 37.78 in late trade. Proximus NV (BR:PROX) declined 1.04% or 0.30 points to end at 28.57 and UCB (BR:UCB) shed 1.01% or 0.62 points to 60.64.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 70 to 48 and 6 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.16% or 2.10 to $1284.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.08% or 0.04 to hit $51.84 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.10% or 0.06 to trade at $57.94 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.20% to 1.1789, while EUR/GBP rose 0.19% to 0.8938.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 93.32.