Investing.com – Belgium equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 gained 2.46%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which rose 5.49% or 4.900 points to trade at 94.180 at the close. bpost NV (BR:BPOST) added 4.79% or 1.26 points to end at 27.56 and Umicore SA (BR:UMI) was up 4.29% or 1.72 points to 41.81 in late trade.
Biggest losers included NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB), which added 0.28% or 0.10 points to trade at 35.92 in late trade. Solvay SA (BR:SOLB) added 0.99% or 1.10 points to end at 112.20 and Engie SA (PA:ENGIE) gained 1.11% or 0.14 points to 13.18.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 98 to 21 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.67% or 8.90 to $1320.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 2.33% or 1.48 to hit $61.91 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 1.78% or 1.19 to trade at $65.67 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.78% to 1.2279, while EUR/GBP fell 0.25% to 0.8850.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.66% at 90.11.