Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Consumer Services and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 rose 0.68%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 17.58% or 15.630 points to trade at 104.550 at the close. bpost NV (BR:BPOST) added 1.80% or 0.24 points to end at 13.56 and UCB (BR:UCB) was up 1.28% or 1.02 points to 80.92 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ontex Group (BR:ONTEX), which lost 1.33% or 0.25 points to trade at 18.50 in late trade. ING Groep NV (AS:INGA) declined 1.00% or 0.110 points to end at 10.894 and Anheuser Busch Inbev SA NV (BR:ABI) shed 0.63% or 0.48 points to 75.75.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 68 to 43 and 20 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.62% or 7.40 to $1209.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 1.65% or 1.14 to hit $70.39 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.48% or 0.38 to trade at $79.44 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.17% to 1.1626, while EUR/GBP rose 0.16% to 0.8919.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.22% at 94.84.